The True Uzumaki
by Capell
Summary: Inconsequential, or so he was meant to be. Yet with the discovery of a single scroll, everything changed. 'I'll prove to them that I'm better, I'll become… a God.' Watch as Naruto ascends through the shinobi world and his plans come to fruition. No pairing.
1. Prologue

**The True Uzumaki**

By Capell

 **Prologue**

 **The Night of the Kyuubi's Attack**

"And there are so many ways to go about doing that."

As the masked man vanished into thin air, Minato knew that he would become a serious threat in the future, but first he had to deal with the Kyuubi and he knew of only one way to do so, to seal it within someone, creating a new Jinchuuriki.

Knowing that only Uzumaki women had ever formed the famed Uzumaki chakra chains which could restrain the almighty Kyuubi, Minato used his _Hiraishin_ to get both his wife Kushina and his daughter Natsumi, teleporting them to a small clearing near the Kyuubi.

He explained his plan of using the _Shiki Fūjin_ to seal the Kyuubi inside Natsumi, allowing Kushina to raise what he considered to be the future child of prophecy. She agreed reluctantly and restrained the Kyuubi using her chakra chains, so that Minato could begin the _Shiki Fūjin_ …

"Stop! Minato you do not need to do this, allow me to take on this task instead."

The Sandaime Hokage suddenly appeared, landing in front of Minato and placing his hands on top of his, preventing him from executing the _Shiki Fuuin_.

"Hiruzen-sama, but it is my duty as Hokage to defend this village and my family, so-"

"You forget that I have also been Hokage and that it is also my duty to defend this village, I am old Minato and have lived a long life. You have a wife and two children to look after whilst mine are all grown up and my only regret is to never see any grandchildren. Live Minato and lead this village to a brighter future. Now make sure that Kushina survives and continues to restrain the Kyuubi."

Pushing Minato towards Kushina, Hiruzen took his place in front of the Kyuubi and began the hand seals that would turn Natsumi into a Jinchuuriki and result in his death.

"Good luck, Minato, Kushina and may the Will of Fire forever burn brightly within you. **SHIKI FŪJIN!"**

An ethereal figure appeared behind the Sandaime, ghostly white, with a knife inside its mouth and holding some beads, the Shinigami had appeared to seal the Kyuubi.

Plunging its hand through Hiruzen and into the Kyuubi, the Shinigami dragged the entire essence of the Kyuubi into Natsumi; Hiruzen quickly finished the sealing by using the Hakke no Fūin Shiki in order to allow Natsumi access to the Kyuubi's chakra when she was older.

With a content smile upon his face at his accomplishment and gazing one more time at the village he had protected all his life, Hiruzen Sarutobi fell backwards and died.

Two ANBU quickly landed before the Yondaime and his wife, silently requesting orders as to what must be done next. Deciding to mourn later, Minato got back into his 'Hokage mode' thinking about what must be done for Konoha to pull out of this mess in the best state possible.

"Take Kushina to the hospital immediately and get our best medic team, she will need a lot of help to survive the Kyuubi's extraction. We need to put out the remaining fires and find out who survived and who died, we can have time for mourning later."

The next few weeks would be a tumultuous time for Konoha, counting up the dead, conducting repairs and presenting a strong front to the rest of the Elemental Nations. During all of this, Minato told the village how the Sandaime had sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi into his daughter, a saviour who would use the power she gained from the fox in order to protect the village.

The result of this speech was that Natsumi became a hero to Konoha, both to the civilians and shinobi alike, a girl who could do no wrong. Meanwhile her brother, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, was left mainly forgotten, insignificant in the face of many because he did not hold the Kyuubi, or exhibit any exemplary traits of his parents, if anything he was weaker than the average baby, always quiet.

This would be the treatment that Naruto would receive for years to come, always side-lined for his sister who would get everything, the best presents, early training, always being asked what she wanted and where she would like to go. Naruto would forever be stuck in his sister's shadow, never noticed and never able to surpass Natsumi's prodigal talent for the shinobi arts.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

This fanfic has been sitting in my documents for many years, but I've never quite had the courage to post it online seeing as I haven't written any form of literature in many a year. Recently however, after seeing something on the news I plucked up my courage and finally said to myself 'Why not?' and thus the fruits of my labours finally sees the light of day.

This fiction draws inspiration from many others, of which I could not begin to name, as many I read years ago. So all I can say is thank you to each and every writer I have read over the years for providing me the inspiration to come up with my own ideas. I must also give thanks to you who have read this story and will gladly accept whatever review/criticism you leave for me.

Finally, I do not own Naruto, nor do I make any money from the publishing of this work. The only thing I gain is the enjoyment of having written this, until next time, ja ne!


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **8 Years Later…**

"Tou-san, Kaa-san look!" An eight year old Natsumi quickly bounced around, her red hair and blue eyes leaving no doubt as to whom her parents were. She showed her parents that she had conjured three long, thick golden chains from her back which were now floating serenely behind her.

"Well done Natsumi-chan, you're one step closer to becoming more like me and your tou-san; maybe you'll even take that hat away from him."

"Heh, she has a long way to go yet, but maybe one day, especially now that your one year older Natsumi-chan!" Exclaimed an exuberant Minato Namikaze who was taking a break while his _Kage Bunshin_ did his paperwork duties in the Hokage tower.

Eight years on from the Kyuubi attack and all was well, Konoha remained the strongest of the Five Great shinobi villages and the next generation of clan heirs were growing up together and forming strong bonds with each other.

Minato had adverted two disasters within recent years, dealing with the kidnapping of Hinata Hyuuga by refusing the demands of the Yondaime Raikage to hand over the killer of one of his Jounin and instead threatening to publicly denounce him and Kumo and then threatening them with war. Not wanting to go up against the Kiroi Senko who had trumped even his speed, the Raikage backed down.

Secondly, Minato had prevented the coup d'état that the Uchiha clan were preparing by giving them an ultimatum, continue on their current path and he along with the village would execute them all in a single night, or become a more public figure within the village, having his own endorsement and regain the trust of everyone thus bringing the Uchiha back to its former glory. Needless to say, the Uchiha feared the Yondaime's retribution as not one could react in time to his speed, even their eyes couldn't keep up and so they chose the second option, with some Uchiha now becoming Jounin-sensei's which reassured the population of Konoha about the Uchiha's role within the village.

This increase in popularity with the village made the Uchiha clan scrap any and all plans that they had to try and overthrow the current village leaders and set up their own dictatorship within Konoha.

As far as both the majority of Konoha, Minato and Kushina were concerned, all was well, although there still remained the puzzle as to who the masked man was and what he wanted, Minato and Kushina had pushed this question to the back of their minds in order to focus upon their child who they thought was the child of prophecy, the promised saviour of the world.

As such they had given her early training and had not been disappointed, she was a prodigy in most of the shinobi arts, inheriting her mother's vitality and chakra chains whilst inheriting her father's genius for the shinobi arts. Thus by the age of eight, Natsumi was all but a chunin in capabilities, this only cemented their belief that she was the child of prophecy, such talent had to mean that she was destined to change the world for the better.

However both parents had been extremely disappointed with their son's lack of progress, he seemed to have no real talent for anything, despite the minimal training they gave him. Oh he was smart, but his body was weak and so he struggled with the ninja arts barring genjutsu. In this his imagination and intelligence provided Naruto the means to catch everyone except Hyuuga's and Uchiha's off guard but neither of his parents really focused upon genjutsu and so they mainly ignored him in favour of the loud, talented daughter that they had.

As Naruto gazed down at his 'family' who were once again celebrating Natsumi's achievements and Natsumi's birthday, he proceeded down the hall and entered the large library that their family had due to all the scrolls his mother had retrieved and brought over from Uzushiogakure.

Naruto resented his family for ignoring him, blaming them for never training him and blaming Natsumi for taking his strength. He believed she was only so strong because she had robbed him of his strength, therefore having the prodigious talent she does now.

Being so quiet, Naruto never made any friends, all the clan heirs and the whole village were attracted to his loud sister so no one ever noticed him or got to know him, meaning he was always left alone, even more so because his sister had always spread rumours about him also stating that anyone who played with him was a loser. This was enough to make everyone else reject him when he asked to play thus he was forced to stay behind.

Books and scrolls were his only solace, books and scrolls couldn't ignore him, or refuse to acknowledge him or look at him, disappointed. They could only give him information which may one day help him gain a stronger body and prove to everyone just how strong he is compared to them.

Naruto was only allowed access to a small section of the library which contained only the beginner books regarding the shinobi arts and any academic books that didn't contain shinobi secrets. Yet this was still a large amount of information to go through and so Naruto had looked at each section, hoping to find something that he could use to prove he was strong and had talent, but he never found anything except hints at what could be done with fuuinjutsu.

Now while fuuinjutsu is a very strong art, especially as you get to the higher levels, Naruto only had access to the basics and so learnt little that could help him. He had decided to have one last look at this section before moving on elsewhere; perhaps a futile attempt but nevertheless, he may find something of use to him.

So Naruto began to take all of the reading materials out, thinking that there might be something he had missed behind all the other scrolls, lo and behold there was one, tiny scroll which had been randomly left on one of the shelves.

Opening it, Naruto saw a sealing formula the likes of which he couldn't even begin to comprehend, yet hoping that it would reveal some great secret to him, he began to channel what little chakra he had into the scroll after dropping a speck of blood upon it just in case it was a blood seal.

Before he knew it, Naruto was locked in place, paralysed as he felt some sort of presence judging him, analysing his worth, until he had seemingly passed this test and a second scroll appeared from within the first, this one far larger than the previous one.

 _To the young Uzumaki who has just opened this scroll,_

 _If our predictions and calculations are right, then you are one of the last Uzumaki alive, with only four other direct relations and one who has tenuous ties to the Uzumaki heritage._

 _What you have just opened proves you are a_ _True Uzumaki_ _; we are a separate order to the rest of our clan, who have devoted ourselves to learning every secret, studying it and replicating it. We are not the frivolous fools the rest of our clans portray us to be, we study the secrets of the world in the hope that we can one day grant one of our own the abilities the Rikudou Sennin had, the power of a God._

 _We have been able to, using fuuinjutsu, pick out certain genes from within other people, graft it onto our own DNA and gain their abilities. For example, imagine you are a slow shinobi, merely find someone who is fast, take but a few drops of their blood, apply the correct seal and you will gain their speed, no adverse effects attached to it._

 _We can become stronger, faster, have more chakra and more chakra control than anyone in the world, we can even copy bloodlines, having gone so far as to recently gain Uchiha blood and have just granted the Sharingan to one of our own, our greatest achievement so far!_

 _You may ask why we haven't already taken over the Elemental Nations, I tell you that even if we have the ability to obtain the Sharingan we still have to train it in order to get the other tomoe in the eye. We have also only been able to graft one bloodline at a time, to do more results in… dire consequences. We are sure that it is possible but we haven't yet breached that boundary, our skills are not great enough. In addition the rest of our clan are soft-hearted fools who let their precious morals and beliefs get in the way of the strength they could achieve and hence these imbeciles would kill us because of the things we have done in the name of elevating our status._

 _But we know that soon there will be attack on our village, the blockade is already in effect and we cannot escape now, trapped not only by outsiders, but also by our own wretched clan, who hold us responsible for the invasion we are about to face. Someone must have let the outside world know of just what we True Uzumaki do, why else would they come after this village? The other Uzumaki are fools, only bearing the successes of our research but never learning the true secrets of fuuinjutsu, feeling safe that their vitality and pathetic knowledge of fuuinjutsu will protect them._

 _So it is up to you, young Uzumaki, to continue our work and one day figure out the secrets of the Rikudou Sennin himself. Inside this scroll, you will find all the materials you need to advance from a beginner of fuuinjutsu, proceeding through the regular 10 pathetic levels and onto the 10 levels of Uzumaki fuuinjutsu; after accomplishing this, you can finally advance to the 10 levels of True Uzumaki fuuinjutsu. This will teach you the secrets which led us to copying the abilities of others, see partially into the future and even going so far as to develop the Shiki_ _Fūjin_ _, a seal which called forth the Shinigami himself and bound him to do what we asked of it, although at the cost of the user's life._

 _No True Uzumaki have ever been able to advance beyond what we consider the eighth level by our own standards, it is our firm hope that you can do this young Uzumaki and learn the secrets behind the Rikudou Sennin, the Bijuu and what happened to the Great God Tree, the Shinju which was the primordial God we once worshipped?_

 _Our hopes rest with you,_

 _Uzumaki Arashi,_

 _72_ _nd_ _Head of the True Uzumaki branch_

This was… outstanding, beyond anything that Naruto had ever hoped to find, it was exactly what he needed to surpass his sister, his parents and every shinobi in existence. He felt pride that he was considered a True Uzumaki, but obviously his mother wasn't, after all she must have tried to open it if she had brought it from Uzushiogakure and failed to do so, as a result it was left forgotten.

He would start straight away, knowing that he had a lot of work to do in order to reach the level he wanted to be at, it would take years, but it would be worth it.

Heading out of the library and into his room, a place which was bare along the walls, containing only his clothes and writing equipment for fuuinjutsu, as well as a small bed; Naruto again placed some blood on the scroll, which then released a cloud of smoke that dispersed to reveal a plethora of equipment necessary for fuuinjutsu as well as all of the scrolls to advance him through the first level of fuuinjutsu.

Naruto would continue to read until the late evening, doing his best to ignore the birthday celebrations going on below, until he had to come down to greet guests. Halfway through greeting the many different clans who had arrived to wish the Hokage's daughter a happy birthday, Naruto heard a loud commotion, automatically identifying it as his 'godfather' Jiraiya of the Sannin.

"Ero-Sennin, you're LATE!" Immediately running up to the white-haired man, Natsumi jumped into his waiting arms, soon being spun around by Jiraiya who had a look of delight on his face.

"Hey gaki, what have I told you about calling me that! Haven't you missed me, the gallant Jiraiya?"

"I think it is a rather accurate name, although I would change the 'Sennin' to 'Baka'."

Approaching the family from behind Jiraiya, a heavily busted woman with two blonde pigtails appeared, Tsunade, another legendary Sannin, had also come to give her birthday gift to the girl.

"Baa-chan, it's been ages, I've missed you!"

Natsumi leapt out of Jiraiya's arms, straight into those of Tsunade's, who had a slight tick mark over her head about being called 'Baa-chan'. Jiraiya was laughing in the background.

However, lurking even further in the darkness from which both Jiraiya and Tsunade had appeared, lay Naruto, who knew what would come next, it always happened the same way; the two Sannin would appear, catch up with his parents and Natsumi, being greeted by everyone and then…

"It's time to open your presents Natsumi! Come quickly into the living room."

Ahh, there was the call from Kushina, following them into the living room, but sticking to the shadows in such a way that only one who intimately knew the corners of the house could, Naruto saw the 'picture perfect' family surrounded by the clans and a huge pile of presents.

"Can I start now, pretty please?"

Seeing the indulgent nod from her parents, Natsumi tore into her presents, giving thanks where it was due to each person for every present, garnering a wide range of ninja tools, books and many other esoteric items.

But of course, the best came last, only four presents remained.

"So where're your presents, baa-chan, ero-Sennin, kaa-san, tou-san?"

Stepping forward, Tsunade presented a scroll to Natsumi, explaining what it contained.

"That is my personal guide to chakra control, something I know you still struggle with, as well as containing some basic Iryō ninjutsu techniques that don't require such a fine chakra control, study hard and I might give you some more."

Giving a large thank you, knowing that this was just what she needed to advance her training, Natsumi next turned to her mother, who was also holding a small scroll out to her.

"This is the first of the Uzumaki scrolls, I know that it might be a bit advanced for you, but it contains information on both our clan's fuuinjutsu techniques as well as how to utilise our chakra chains, which I'll help guide you with. Your tou-san will also help with the fuuinjutsu, but he has an additional present for you."

"That's right, Natsumi-chan, I'll be teaching you the first steps to creating my Rasengan, I know that you're still young, but it should also help your chakra control, as well as giving you an awesome move to use. But Jiraiya has topped us all this year, though it is sort of a joint present from both of us."

Turning curious eyes to Jiraiya, Natsumi saw that he had laid a large scroll in front of her, which had a list of names on it.

"My present, gaki, is to offer you the Toad Summoning Contract, if you'd like to sign it that is. All you need to do is sign your name in blood and BAM you're the youngest Toad Summoner ever!"

With sparkling eyes, Natsumi leapt at the chance to sign the contract, creating a messy signature on the scroll, but it was accepted nonetheless and Natsumi became the next Toad Summoner.

As the family and all the guests celebrated such fine presents and the evening, Naruto burned in jealousy, outraged that his sister would be given so many priceless presents. He should have had the same presents, but was instead denied his heritage as a Toad Summoner, a member of the Uzumaki clan, learning one of his father's prized techniques or even being given chakra control exercises that he could have used to increase his reserves and potentially strengthen his body.

Instead he was forgotten, just like the past two years, since everyone had given up on him becoming anything more than an average Chunin. Well he would show them; from now on he would look out for only himself and would use every opportunity to advance his own studies. For the moment, that meant collecting as much blood as he could in the most innocuous manner possible so that no one discovered what he was up to.

' _I'll prove to them that I'm better, I'll become… a God.'_


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **4 ½ Years Later…**

Today was the graduation exam for Konoha's next set of potential genin, all the clan heirs were shoe-ins for the next generation of shinobi, seeing as they are all but chunin in strength. Sasuke Uchiha and Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze were competing for the title of Rookie of the Year, as both were now equivalent to Tokubetsu Jounin in strength, but were kept behind so they could forge ties to the other clan heirs.

Naruto had become just as his parents had predicted, an average shinobi who found even the academy taijutsu hard, a style purposefully developed for civilian bodies. He performed well in the basic three, finding the _Kawarimi no jutsu_ somewhat hard due to its chakra requirements. On the other hand Naruto kept his genjutsu abilities secret, he was actually at Chunin level with said skill but could not advance further because of his low chakra levels.

This meant that Naruto was ignored by pretty much everyone as they passed over him, as if he was invisible to them all.

As such, Naruto was able to quietly advance his fuuinjutsu skills with no one any wiser; 6 months after their eighth birthday, Naruto had mastered the first 10 levels of basic fuuinjutsu, it took him another year for him to advance through the next 10 levels of Uzumaki fuuinjutsu, a feat completely unheard of. It took Naruto mere weeks to learn things it took fuuinjutsu geniuses years or even decades to comprehend and so for the final 3 years Naruto had been advancing through the True Uzumaki levels and was currently at level 7, proficient enough to confidently graft the abilities of others onto his own DNA.

But Naruto was now able to do many other things with fuuinjutsu as well, he understood the intricacies of the Shiki Fūjin and how the contract between God and mortal was formed, he had decoded the Yondaime's Hiraishin, fully comprehending how it worked after he had gotten his hand on one of Minato's kunai. Naruto could twist an individual's mind, breaking it completely as a form of torture; his seals had genjutsu on them which if applied to someone directly, trapped them in an cycle of genjutsu which was exceedingly hard to break out of unless they were strong enough or had a companion to remove the seal. Jinchuuriki seals were mere child's play, only the amount of chakra necessary to create them prevented him from using them.

Today would be the first trial, he would gain the vitality he so rightfully deserved as a member of the Uzumaki clan and hence he was inside an abandoned house in the red-light district. No one had used it in years, partly due to Naruto using it as a test for his genjutsu seals, obscuring the place for the view of the public, partly because shinobi never came this way to spot it.

The place was covered with seals, small seals overlaid by larger seals, seals flowing and connecting them all together, all written painstakingly in Naruto's blood, a requirement for this type of fuuinjutsu.

In the centre of a spiral indicative of Uzumaki fuuinjutsu which held secrets that none but the True Uzumaki knew, sat Naruto who had a bowl of his mother's blood in his hands, which he had obtained when one of the many spars between his 'parents' got out of hand, resulting in injuries for both of them.

As Naruto began to drink the blood from the bowl, a grimace on his face, he simultaneously activated the fuuinjutsu arrangement beneath him, which began the process of extracting the desired genes from Kushina's blood, Uzumaki vitality and her chakra chains.

The pain he felt was indescribable, all-encompassing and insanity inducing. The scrolls had warned that he may go mad because of the pain that the transfer induced upon the user of this fuuinjutsu because it would change aspects of his body's DNA, thus changing its structure in but a few moments when it should be done over years.

After writhing on the floor for what felt like eons, the pain finally subsided, Naruto decided to lay there for a bit longer, just breathing and relaxing from his now pain free mind.

Getting up, Naruto found that his body already felt stronger, more energetic, he found that his chakra levels had skyrocketed, pushing Jounin level simply because his mother's chakra was that potent. Knowing that at least one aspect of his experiment had worked, Naruto decided to see if he had also gained the chakra chains of his mother. Searching inside himself and willing his chakra to assume the form he desired, Naruto felt a pulling sensation at his back, where a single, thin chakra chain emerged, it was obvious that he would have to practice the technique.

"But it worked, it worked! I can finally make serious headway with all of my plans. First to gain the speed of the Yondaime, then to use the blood I have obtained over the years to grant myself an unnaturally strong affinity for each of the elements, after this I can use the blood of Tsunade to give myself perfect chakra control and maybe even gain access to the famed Senju body.

"After this I will begin my bloodline experiments, attempting to merge multiple bloodlines together, advancing my other abilities in the meantime to see if said skills will give me any insight into this problem, or if they will allow my body to contain multiple bloodlines. "

As Naruto had found out, all the True Uzumaki who had tried to grant themselves two bloodlines fell into insanity immediately after starting the process. Their bodies quickly decomposing afterwards as two bloodlines in one body just weren't compatible for some reason.

Naruto had collected enough blood from his sister, Sasuke and Hinata Hyuuga over the years from academy battles between them and various others that he hoped to combine them using different methods before finding out which method was perfect, then grafting the blood onto himself, even his sister's due to the chakra of the Kyuubi prevalent inside it.

"A few years should have passed while I graft all these abilities on myself, having also practiced with them, then I shall have further advanced in my experiments to allow for multiple bloodlines. In addition, I should have advanced my fuuinjutsu to a level 8, allowing me to use dead skin as a medium to get DNA from and thus gain abilities from it, such as the Shodaime's Mokuton. That along with the Byakugan and Sharingan should make me into a shinobi the likes of which has never been seen with only the Rikudou Sennin himself being greater."

Having reiterated and confirmed his long-term plans to himself, the prodigal Uzumaki then raced out of the warehouse, relishing in his ability to move so fast with his new body, where once could only run for short periods, now he could run freely.

Making a beeline for Training Ground 23, Naruto immediately began practicing the taijutsu he had so greatly desired to use for all these years, learning all of the theory and more. He would practice until late into the day, on a high after performing a successful experiment, never feeling any drain upon his body due to its high vitality. No one would notice anyway, Naruto had hidden himself so well that his 'family' never noticed when he came or went anywhere, so long as he arrived for supper he was fine.

Once the day had grown old, Naruto was about to head back home when he heard fighting nearby, wondering at who would still be clashing at this hour, Naruto headed towards the noise, using his stealth skills to remain undetected.

He came to an unexpected sight, Mizuki Touji; an academy teacher of his was standing over the bleeding and unconscious form of Iruka Umino, another teacher of the same class. Mizuki had cuts lined across his body, there was a deep gash along his right arm. On the same side his shoulder appears to have been burned quite badly through the use of a Katon jutsu.

Mizuki had a large scroll on his back which Naruto recognised as that of the Scrolls of Seals, quickly analysing the situation he figured out that Mizuki was trying to steal the scroll as Iruka was far too loyal from how passionate the man always was. Naruto saw this as an opportunity he couldn't miss, to take out Mizuki and copy the Scroll of Seals, granting him access to all the forbidden kinjutsu that resided within it.

Quickly approaching Mizuki from behind, Naruto got close enough to use several small scale genjutsu enhanced by a seal which increased the potency of the illusions, trapping Mizuki and allowing Naruto to sneak up to the man and kill him with kunai in hand. Having ensured the Chunin's death Naruto stood still in shock as he thought about what he had done and how easy it had been. Sure the Chunin was tired from his fight with Iruka, but surely the man would have noticed his presence nearby. For many years Naruto had hardened himself to the realities of the shinobi world, safe in his knowledge that he knew he would have to kill one day, but there was a profound difference in readying himself for it and experiencing it.

At first he felt horror towards himself, how could he be so callous as to just kill another person? Then he felt the guilt, despite being a traitor the man was still another human, a former comrade of Konoha, perhaps he deserved another chance? The moment he thought of chances however Naruto thought of himself and how no one had ever even given him a first chance, let alone a second. The walls Naruto had built around himself as a child as he was shunned by his family, classmates and Konoha itself re-established themselves, a frost settled in blue eyes, a heart grew colder and his brain rationalised the situation before him. Why should he care for them when they had never cared for him? His one true passion, his one true desire was to make his ancestors, the True Uzumaki, proud of him and to do this he would pursue any avenues to complete their goals, to finish their research into the nature of bloodlines and the origin of shinobi.

Dismissing the body before him Naruto took some spare sealing equipment that he had sealed within his pockets and used a fuuinjutsu technique to copy all the information across from the Scroll of Seals to his own scrolls. He cursed himself as he felt his hands shake whilst he created the necessary seals, forced to start again as he sent a stroke of his brush too far.

After Naruto had finished copying the techniques, he made it look as though Iruka had used a kunai attached to string in order to strike Mizuki from behind; a fuuinjutsu formula placed on Iruka to slightly alter his memories and Naruto had covered his tracks. He fled the area and made his way back home, intent on studying the scroll and learning the many secrets contained within, ignoring the single voice within him that spoke out towards his family. After this day, Naruto never heard, or never allowed himself to hear, that single, solitary voice again.

* * *

 **The Next Day…**

' _This is incredible, no wonder these techniques were all hidden here, they could change the very nature of warfare as shinobi know it!_ '

Naruto had studied the scroll throughout the night, finding many techniques that he knew could be put to use at a later date, but of imminent importance was the _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ , a technique that created corporeal clones which would grant all their memories to their creator when dispelled.

Forget about many years of building up his abilities, he could now do it in months, skyrocketing his capabilities and advancing his plans by years.

Even better was that said training could begin today as the betrayal of Mizuki and the damage Iruka had sustained meant that graduation was pushed back by a fortnight as all shinobi were investigated for any signs of betrayal. He knew this because Minato had said so within his office, a place where Naruto had one of his many fuuinjutsu seals which combined a listening seal with that of a modified _Mujin Meisai_ , a personal technique of the Nidaime Tsuchikage, completely erasing both the physical form and chakra of said seal, which was tiny in the first place.

So Naruto quickly had breakfast, setting out in the morning to Training Ground 23 which mostly remained unused, likely because the area had no special features to make it enticing for the higher ranked shinobi and it was too far away from the village to make it useful for rookie genin.

" _Kage Bunshin no jutsu!_ " Three clones appeared; Naruto felt a thrill every time he was able to use so much chakra with so little effort.

He separated the clones so that one would practice genjutsu, one would practice chakra control and one would practice fuuinjutsu. Naruto himself would be engaging in physical conditioning, taijutsu and finally using his mother's chakra chains.

Exactly one week after obtaining his mother's abilities, Naruto did the same for his father, drawing up the same seals which allowed him to acquire abilities from Kushina; Naruto activated them once more, again feeling the excruciating pain of having his DNA re-written to grant his body the capacity to become the fastest if he trained hard enough. The same was done again just before graduation day with Maito Gai's blood from a 'youthful spar' he had with his 'eternal rival' which became messy very quickly, allowing Naruto to collect blood from the two.

This would all contribute to his taijutsu training, which was advancing quickly with these new attributes to factor alongside his own talent for hard work. However Naruto found a side effect in that their chakra added onto Kushina's, pushing his reserves to Elite Jounin level, allowing Naruto to create more clones, some were even used to practice his natural fledgling affinity for Fuuton jutsu, although Naruto would soon have affinities for all of the elements. The combination of the three bloods and Kakashi's soon to be grafted would grant him powerful affinities for all of the elements.

On the other hand Naruto had to try triply hard in maintaining any sort of chakra control, thankfully Minato and Kakashi's chakras came with an innate feeling of control, which he began to use to tame Kushina's and Gai's more wild chakra initially through the use of the tree climbing and water walking techniques. Soon he was forced to advance onto more complex chakra control techniques, such things involved running up a waterfall, balancing a kunai on his finger and then spinning said kunai on his finger as he balanced it. Even with these techniques, Naruto had not yet reached the most advanced level of chakra control, the ones reserved for those with an innate ability for control or in order to perform the higher level medical techniques.

* * *

 **The day of graduation**

Naruto found the sensei of his class, Iruka, waiting for him when he arrived at the academy as everyone knew that Naruto always got to class at a ridiculously early time, what they didn't know was that he was reviewing information from his various listening seals around Konoha. Such a practice kept him informed on exactly what was happening within the village, he knew what was happening all over Konoha and as any shinobi knew, information was vital as a lack of it was fatal.

Iruka just handed him a message, only saying how proud he was of Naruto for graduating in a very bland voice which just went to show how much the man actually cared for him. Naruto read the message, his countenance turning stormy very quickly.

'How dare he, how DARE HE! That little fool, believing me to be so weak and fragile that I won't be able to cope with "the demanding pace that a Jounin-sensei would set" so he's sent me to the reserve forces where all the dead drops who are never going anywhere are made to sit and twiddle their thumbs in the hopes that something goes wrong and they can be sent out to act as cannon fodder. Minato Namikaze you are a BASTARD!'

The reserve forces were mainly for the old or partially incapacitated shinobi who were not fit for active duty but were still willing to defend the village. However there was a small component there made up of those who were considered weak enough that they wouldn't make anything more than a below average Chunin, hence the village didn't waste resources to train them.

It was here that Naruto had been delegated to spend his time from now on; the Hokage probably didn't want to face his talentless son being on a Genin team which would be scrutinised by others. This was both good in that Naruto had extra time to train, bad in that Naruto wouldn't get the chance to regularly exit the village when the teams started doing C-ranks and just plain insulting to him.

But orders were orders so the blonde (official) Genin made his way to the leader of the reserve forces, a seasoned veteran from the second and third shinobi world wars. As Naruto finally arrived at the bunker where said reserves were located, Naruto found an old man waiting for him who had more scars than he was comfortable with, one such scar passing right through his eye, blinding it; as well as having half of his left leg missing.

The old man was dressed in traditional ANBU gear; everything was tight leaving no wind resistance. Despite his infirmity, the man still had the stance of a professional killer, he had the aura of one as well, subtly intimidating, his killing instinct restrained just below the surface.

"So you're the new recruit eh?" The man had a deep, gravelly tone, most likely something to do with the long scar across the man's throat.

The old man noticed his gaze and smirked mirthlessly, "Like it, an Iwa Jounin caused that one in the third war, only just survived it. You'll eventually pick up some over the years, but first you have to survive just like all the others in here have. No one cares about us, not the newbies who see us as outdated, not our famed leader the Yondaime who sees us as too cruel and unkind, ravaged and partially unhinged by the horrors of the war, nor the elders, who see us as pawns for their little games to defend the village."

The blonde was surprised by the speech, agreeing with it but not expecting to find a single shinobi who would speak out against the beloved Yondaime.

"Surprised boy? Don't be, I'm too old and bitter to care anymore, what more could be done, my family and friends are dead, I'm half blind with half a leg missing, what else can you do? Most folk here respect the Yondaime, especially after he sealed the Kyuubi, but I don't give two shits about the man, he's too airy fairy with his head stuck in the clouds about a dream world of peace he envisions.

"I'm gonna make sure you are fit to go out there and show everyone that we're not losers or deadbeats, even if I'm a veteran Chunin with some Jounin capabilities now, I can still train someone to be the same and teach everyone that we can still fight!"

"I'll do it." Naruto was never a person of many words unless speaking to himself, otherwise he was very short with others, almost emotionless in his speech patterns.

"Good, meet me here tomorrow to see some of the others and meet a few people who will become your new teammates. I will be your sensei, but I must warn you that we don't spoon feed around here, we are mainly self-sufficient." With that the old man began to walk away.

"What's your name sensei?"

"You may call me Kage, as all the others do."

Naruto wondered why the man would have the name 'shadow' but knew he would get nothing from the man. He decided to introduce himself instead.

"My name is Naruto." The man nodded, walking away and leaving the rejected son of the Hokage to himself to decide what to do with his day.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

I'm going to try for a weekly update each Saturday/Sunday, hopefully I can make the deadline each week but I give no guarantees. There's some action in the next chapter, but it's gonna be slow for a couple more before we get to the real action section of the story, so I hope you can bear with me until then. Until next week then, Ja ne!


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Naruto met his new team, Jiro who specialised in kenjutsu, but his body was an early and short developer, so he was limited with the amount of chakra he had, putting him at a low Chunin level of chakra which he used to his best ability but simply couldn't push past a low-level Chunin. His other teammate was Ryo who was a 'jack of all trades but master of none' through no fault of his own as he could find no teachers who were willing to put in the effort to help a low-class Genin. In addition he faced a similar situation as Jiro, where he faced the problem of severely diminishing returns for the training he did, so once his body found it very hard to become stronger. With experience the two Genin may advance, but they were unlikely to become anything noteworthy in their careers and would likely be forced into desk jobs so they could serve the village.

Together with Kage, who revealed nothing of himself and remained a mystery to all of them, they began a series of D-rank missions to promote teamwork, also giving them the time to hone some of their skills after a period of a month.

At first they worked well but with no bonds to tie them together and make them truly work as a team, however after a few missions involving Tora the cat, the three Genin developed a bond between them, nothing astounding or earth shattering, but enough to work with each other for the time being.

Naruto discovered that the other three were the only other people in the reserve forces who truly shared his view of the Yondaime, as a man to be despised for denying them the chance to advance themselves beyond their current limits. For this reason Naruto actively tried to become slightly friendlier towards his team, although his naturally cold disposition made this difficult.

After a month of training, Kage had imparted many tips to them, things only those who have experienced combat could know and tell others. Furthermore Naruto had become comfortable with handling the new prowess his body had, advancing at an astounding speed through various shinobi skillsets, not that anyone knew or took notice.

The team was once again meeting at the bunkhouse, ready for another day of D-ranks and tips from the old man.

"Today I think you are ready to get a C-rank mission, nothing glamorous, just enough threat to maybe find a bandit or two, let you get a taste of killing, get back, sort you all out and then try for another one. I've already applied to take a mission, we'll meet the client in a room where we hash out anything they want as they get to know us."

"What do you mean by 'applied to take a mission' sensei?" Questioned Ryo who was curious as to why they would need to apply for such a low ranked mission.

"Well we're not a traditional Jounin team with a bunch of green Genins are we now? So I can't walk in all cocky and say 'give me a C-rank as I can do it with one hand tied behind my back' now can I? Instead I have to send a request to the Hokage for a mission who then eventually gets back after a few weeks, saying if his evaluation of us has proved whether we can go on a mission. That's what life is like in the reserve forces, no respect whatsoever for you, hence all the political red tape crap they pull on us, trying to push us into cushy pencil pusher jobs."

The three weren't quite sure what to say about this revelation, they had known that the all of the reserve forces were considered deadbeats who just didn't quit, but they hadn't quite realised that the prejudice extended to the simple acquisition of missions and a great deal of political rubbish being thrown at them.

"This is why I sent a request four weeks ago if we could be granted any C-rank they deemed suitable for us, which is why I have got a reply today telling me about a man called Tazuna, who we shall meet now. Follow me."

The three smiled at their sensei's foresight, a trait he was very proud of.

The four entered a room in the Hokage's Tower which was one of many made to meet clients. Inside they found an old man who reeked of alcohol, staring at them with tired eyes.

"I assked for shome shinobsi, not these uneducated brats who're barely outta diapers. And you're a cr-cripple."

The man was obviously drunk, however the team had been warned about the various types of client they would meet, those who were doubtful of their skills, those who insulted them, those who expected to be pampered throughout the journey and many more. So even if they were offended, they still stood stoically as their sensei talked to the client.

"Tazuna-san, my team are experienced enough to fight a few bandits and I myself can take them on easily despite my disability. I am able to fully assure you that we can deal with this mission."

"Hmph, yous better be able to proshtect my super self on this super important mishon to build a super bridge."

"Of course, we'll meet up tomorrow morning at Konoha's gates, 0700 hours sharp. Team dismissed."

As the team dispersed for the day to prepare themselves for the next day, Naruto wondered how Kage had gotten the mission form past Minato, who would have surely rejected the request for a mission if he had known that he was on the team. What he didn't know was that Kage had entered Naruto under the name of 'Menma', having realised that the Hokage would likely attempt to sabotage his son's progress if he had decided to put the boy in the reserves. As such, Minato had unknowingly allowed his son to go on a C-rank mission.

The four left through the gates of Konoha the next day, chafing at the slow pace they were moving at due to the civilian they were escorting.

A few days into their journey they all noticed a puddle of water which screamed genjutsu to them as there hadn't been any rain in days.

The piss poor attempt at deceiving them resulted in two brothers being engaged by the other three shinobi conducting the mission, the old man just watching from the side-lines, evaluating their performance as he always did.

Surprised at being found out so easily, the two brothers had no opportunity to defend themselves before they were restrained by Jiro and Ryo as Naruto placed a seal on them which stopped them from using any chakra.

The three interrogated the two missing nin, who were identified as Gozu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers and Chunin ranked missing nin from Kirigakure who were known associates of Zabuza Momochi.

After some creative use of his fuuinjutsu seals, the two men only said that their target was the bridge builder, Tazuna. Confronting Tazuna, Kage got the old man to spill the beans about Nami being under the control of Gato and his corporation, basically draining the place of resources and bankrupting the villages while hoarding any money for his own coffers.

"We'll continue the mission, but you'll be forced to pay for at least a B-rank now and I'm sending a message for reinforcements, if Gato has hired any other shinobi, it's most likely a Jounin and we'll have a difficult if not impossible time fighting that level of shinobi. In the meantime keep your guards up to the highest they've ever been, we can't afford to be surprised by a Jounin else the fight will be over instantly."

"Oh thank you super shinobi for saving this poor, old, super bridge builder!" Tazuna was showering praises to his saviours, who sweat dropped at the change from being a pauper to becoming 'super' in the same sentence.

"Just shut up and walk," commented Jiro.

A day later and the group of five had crossed the water surrounding Nami no Kuni, seeing the humongous and dare they say it, impressive bridge that the drunkard was making. After reaching the other side, the mist just seemed to get thicker around them.

"Be careful, this mist is not natural," said Kage.

Ryo turned and threw a kunai into some nearby bushes, out of which came a white rabbit which both Naruto and Kage realised had the wrong fur colour and therefore could only be a substitution.

"Get down!" A large sword whipped just over them, bisecting them if they had been stood up.

The zanbato lodged itself into a tree where a man appeared on top of it, his face covered by bandages and his hair was black.

"It is worse than I feared, Momochi Zabuza, A-rank missing nin from Kiri and former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū." All of them knew that they were all way out of their league, unless the old man suddenly recovered, there was no way that they could survive this encounter. Each had been forced to study the bingo book, so they had all heard of Zabuza and his skill.

"I don't know who you are, nor do I care, hand over the bridge builder or die," his tone threatening, Zabuza had little patience for those before him, having already gauged them and finding them lacking.

Kage struck first, able to hold off the former member of the Seven Swordsmen for a few minutes through a combination of clones and deceit, but then his injury prevented him from blocking a kick which sent the man flying away.

"Huh, guess the man might have been half decent before that injury, gotta respect him for continuing on being a shinobi, but you three are green, you've not seen anything yet."

Naruto attempted one of his strongest genjutsu but the experienced former Jounin dispelled it quickly, recognising the signs of his chakra being interfered with. After doing so he saw kunai heading towards him, Jiro following behind them with his own sword.

The swordsmen batted the kunai away like they were flies, easily engaging Jiro in a kenjutsu fight, in which he was clearly being played with by the other man, accumulating small cuts here and there, prolonging Jiro's pain. Naruto joined in on the fight, putting his recently acquired skills to good use, but despite the training he had done, his taijutsu just wasn't strong enough to match the veteran shinobi who could easily hold both at bay and the long-range support that Ryo was providing as well. None of them could even scrape the man who returned Jiro's sword blows with those of his own, Naruto's strikes were deflected as he felt the shattering force of the man's own blows whilst Ryo had to dodge the very kunai he threw at the man.

Only their teamwork combos which mainly consisted of interference with Zabuza's attacks allowed them to live. Nevertheless Naruto cried out as Zabuza scored a direct hit on his ribs, the blonde-haired teen felt his ribs break and fell back to the earth, leaving Jiro to try and fight off the demon before them.

It was here that Kage interfered again, surprising the missing nin who had thought the man wouldn't get up from his kick, this put him under enough pressure that Naruto and Ryo managed to land a few strikes as Naruto forced himself to endure the pain he was under to enhance the kunai that Ryo threw with a bit of wind chakra, making them sail through the air fast enough to nick the man on his legs.

Zabuza jumped back, scowling at actually being hurt, as insignificant as the damage was, by three greenies and one retired cripple, the blow wounded his pride more than anything else.

"Play time's over now. _Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu_ ," the area was covered by a thick mist of fog, obscuring everything from view.

 _Shick_ , a thump was heard which they turned towards, seeing Jiro's head roll towards them, his face twisted in horror as he saw his imminent death and could neither warn his comrades or do anything to prevent it.

"NO!" Screamed Ryo, who was clearly close to the man who now lay dead before him, perhaps they were siblings, or something more. Naruto had never actually found out, the two were quite private about themselves, in fact Naruto wasn't sure if Ryo and Jiro were their real names.

"I'll kill you bastard!" Ryo ran out into the mist, all emotional control completely forgotten as he even ignored Kage's bellow "Stop you fool, he'll kill you in an instant!"

The three remaining men heard a second _shink_ and a second thud, all knew that Ryo was dead as well.

"Choices, choices, who should I eliminate next, the greenie or the old veteran, maybe making the little greenie more scared would be more entertainment, or maybe seeing the cripple acknowledge his fate would be," taunted Zabuza, who got some sort of sick enjoyment out of the game he was playing.

Naruto couldn't stand the tension, throwing a kunai into the mist where he thought Zabuza may be, grunting as the action pulled against broken ribs.

"Good guess but guess again greenie, you didn't even nick me."

Naruto was panicking, knowing that his mother's chakra chains still weren't at a usable stage in open combat because Naruto had been focusing on more fundamental skills such as his taijutsu, especially now that he was injured, he wouldn't be able to bare the pain forming the chains would bring. He was feeling the full effects of fear in a way he hadn't in years, he kept looking around him, searching for any visible sign of the demon who had trapped him and found grey eyes staring directly into his, the sword thrust straight through Kage, his heart had been pierced, his death was approaching quickly as the Kiri missing nin smiled and vanished once more.

Kage was gasping, clinging onto life as he always had, he beckoned Naruto over to him.

"If, by some sort of miracle or Kami's intervention you survive this boy, do me a favour and become a feared shinobi, prove to everyone that the so-called cripples and losers of the academy have something to offer to the village, let no one hold you back," he had a coughing fit here, gasping some of his last breaths "I know you have plans of some sort, I can see the desire for revenge that burns in your eyes, the desire to surpass your family eats away at you, I'm good enough to have found that out. Pursue them to the very end Naruto." Taking a final shuddering gasp, Kage died an unceremonious death considering the long career the man had had, taking part in two shinobi world wars and leaving life with nothing to show for it.

Naruto looked on with widened eyes at the acknowledgement Kage had given him, the old geezer knew about his plans for revenge and yet had never told a soul about them. His respect for the dead man grew, Naruto felt he owed something to Kage, but wasn't quite sure what, he felt a strange sense of kinship towards the cold-hearted shinobi, but knew of no way to repay the now dead man other than to achieve his goals.

"He was a shinobi worthy of respect, too bad his dying wish will go unfulfilled but you can reminisce with him in the afterlife greenie." Zabuza taunted him once more and Naruto was left hopeless, his entire dream would die with him, the last hope of the True Uzumaki dead, all the secrets of the world would remain as just that, secrets. His plans for the future, his research on bloodlines and fuuinjutsu, everything meant nothing now as it could not save him, for despite his training, Naruto had not had enough time to train to Zabuza's level of ability. He was a high ranked Chunin in power, a very low ranked Tokubetsu Jounin at most; impressive considering how little time he had but not enough to beat the monster before him.

CLANG

In front of Naruto's eyes the sword of Zabuza was being held off by a kunai which was held by a silver haired man whose face was covered by a mask.

"Kakashi Hatake, a pleasure to be sure. I have always wanted to kill the copy ninja, a man who is said to have copied a thousand jutsu."

"You stand no chance Zabuza. Once you would have easily dispatched me, but now I can't lose to you," arrogance seeped out of the Jounin's tone but it was well deserved.

Hatake had been so traumatised by his teammates death that after being in ANBU for a number of years, he left and became the laziest Jounin-sensei on record. He never passed a team, only went on the occasional mission and never really trained either until one day Minato confronted the man at the memorial stone and told him that he disgraced the memory of his teammates who had both done everything they could to protect their loved ones, sure Obito was stupid and late all the time, but he still did his best to help and protect others.

The rant had lasted for a long time, at the end of which Kakashi broke down for the first time in nearly a decade. This helped rejuvenate the man, who afterwards trained himself into the ground, once more taking up the mantle as one of the best shinobi in the village, training under his sensei until he was considered an S-ranked ninja.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes "We'll see about that Hatake."

The two engaged in battle, the fight too fast to see but it was clear that Kakashi had the upper hand from the start, constantly laying small cuts on Zabuza to weaken him, receiving none in return. The Elite Jounin easily held Zabuza's blade at bay, seeing through all of his attacks without even using his Sharingan eye.

Leaping back, Zabuza thought he might best the one-eyed ninja with ninjutsu considering the abundance of water available to use for his suiton jutsu.

As Zabuza began handseals for a suiton jutsu, he found that Kakashi had already finished his, the difference between an A and S-ranked shinobi now being shown clearly.

" _Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu_ " a massive dragon of water charged into Zabuza, sending him flying into the forest as Kakashi started to catch up with him and finish him off. Before he could however, a mirror made of what looked to be ice materialised and Zabuza sank into it, both the mirror and man vanishing moments later, no traces of Zabuza remained.

The heavy mist lifted, revealing the rest of Team 7 and the body of Ryo, his spine severed by Zabuza, dead eyes staring sightlessly at the sky. Kakashi quickly approached and burned the bodies without any ceremony, allowing Naruto no opportunity to say any final farewells to his former team.

"Report," said Kakashi, his voice brooking no argument, or sympathy for the boy before him. He should have been a step brother to Naruto but never would, believing him to only be a failure, this mission only confirming it for him.

Naruto told Kakashi everything that had happened, shedding no tears for the team he had been with, mourning internally for those who were outcasts like him, containing no love for the Yondaime. But he refused to show any sort of weakness before this man or the team that waited behind him.

Kakashi stayed silent as he digested the information given, the mission had gone to hell for the boy and his team, however he could complete it, telling the client that Naruto's team was from a subpar division of Konoha who were only allowed to do C-ranked missions and shouldn't have continued with this one when it was apparent it had risen above their level. A brutal solution against Naruto, but effective and his sensei wouldn't mind.

"Tazuna-san, _my_ team shall complete the mission you have given Konoha, I am an Elite Jounin myself, whilst my Genin are the best that the village has to offer, as you can see I easily defeated Zabuza there. Unfortunately Naruto and his team were only equipped to deal with a C-rank mission, their courage should be applauded for going on a higher mission but it was foolish of their sensei to do such a thing. Naruto you shall stick with us as _we_ deal with this mission."

'Orders heard loud and clear bastard.' Naruto only too clearly heard 'my team' and 'we', blatantly suggesting that his time was finished but he would be made to watch a proper team do the job his had failed to do. He burned with hatred at the thought that he and his team were now seen as weaklings in the eyes of Tazuna, who was clearly fawning over how easily Kakashi had dispatched Zabuza while his team barely touched him.

Just to top it all off, it appeared Team 7 had seen through what Kakashi had said as well, all of them looking smug, particularly Natsumi who had a lovely superior smirk aimed directly at him. As if her ego needed another boost.

"Where is Kushina-sama Kakashi-san, I believe she is also part of this team?" It wasn't Kakashi who answered, but a haughty Natsumi.

" _Kaa-san_ was deemed unnecessary for such a low ranked mission when Kakashi nii-san is already on it. We won't have nearly as much difficulty in completing this mission Naruto-baka."

Naruto ground his teeth at the blatant insult but would let it go until he had the strength to casually crush her into submission, relishing his revenge for every second it was worth when it finally happened.

"That's enough, Tazuna-san can you please guide us to your home in Nami?" Ever the consummate diplomat when dealing with clients, Kakashi directed his team's focus to the mission, having them form a standard Manji formation around the client, Naruto forced to stay inside the formation as if he needed to be protected like Tazuna, bastards.

They finally made their way to Tazuna's home, his daughter graciously welcoming them all into her home as Tazuna gushed about how the 'super shinobi' had saved him just before he was going to die. No mention or hint was made of Naruto's team who had sacrificed their lives for the man, they were just forgotten like all of the other no name losers who were a part of the reserve forces.

"Thank you for the food and compliments, but this is far from over and Zabuza will be back in about one week I should imagine."

"Hai and we have to defeat his accomplice as well." This came from the black-haired rival of Natsumi, a rivalry shared by both of their mothers who pushed their little babies to best the other and settle the feud of who was the best between the two.

"The one who made the ice mirror? They'll be easy to deal with, you and I will settle it while Kakashi-sensei tackles Zabuza and Sakura can defend Tazuna against everyone else!" The exuberant daughter of the Yondaime hashed out a fairly well thought plan in mere seconds, which both Sasuke and Sakura nodded to, although Sasuke intended to fight the ice nin himself, proving his superiority over his red-haired rival.

"A decent plan Natsumi, except you haven't thought about just how strong Zabuza's accomplice is, they are at least a high level Chunin in order to still be with Zabuza, but are much likely to be stronger if they are actually partnered with the man. Hence I am going to train you all in the ground for the next week, enhancing all of the skills you currently have, but we'll discuss more about your training regimes tomorrow, now you must sleep and prepare for the next morning my cute little Genin."

The Jounin eye smiled as the three grumbled at being called 'cute' and how they weren't babies and could get themselves to sleep.

Soon after the cyclops approached the blonde haired genin who regarded him silently,

"Naruto, you will defend this house as my team and I train or guard Tazuna, you must be on the lookout for anyone who may take Tsunami or Inari hostage and use them against us," the silver haired man walked off after giving his instructions to babysit the family and let his skills rust in the meantime.

'Stuff that, if they're going to train or guard the ungrateful drunkard all the time, I'll practice my fuuinjutsu, I simply must become stronger or else I'll be killed, just like I nearly was today.' The encounter with Zabuza had shaken Naruto up, even if he hadn't revealed how he felt to the others, who would mock him if he so much as breathed a word of his fear.

He had to get stronger, enough to never be put in that situation again, which meant being better than everyone, he never desired to feel such fear again.

The next week was monotonous, but very interesting for Naruto's fuuinjutsu studies as he used a Kage Bunshin as a lookout, using even more to advance his studies and try out new ideas. He was able to experiment some more on mixing bloodlines, following research started by his ancestors but also putting his own spin on them, recording the results and feeling as though he was getting closer to a breakthrough.

In addition to these experiments, Naruto had nearly reached level 8 mastery of True Uzumaki fuuinjutsu, a level denoted by someone who could use dead skin to gain a bloodline, as the last True Uzumaki obtained the Iburi clan's bloodline from a dead body of the Iburi before it was destroyed. But Naruto wouldn't actually be able to confirm he had reached this level until he had solved the multiple bloodline puzzle, which would actually put him as a very high level 8 master if he could do it.

On the other hand the week was torturous with his 'sister's' constant attitude, oh she wasn't extremely bratty or idiotic. It was this silent superiority that she and Sasuke shared, something which clearly stated 'I am better than you' without even saying it. Naruto despised them for it, despite knowing that they had worked hard to get where they had it was only because they were trained by the best. Natsumi had Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, Tsunade, the toads and now Kakashi. Sasuke had Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi and his entire clan to take from.

What did he have? Scrolls from his ancestors which he had painstakingly worked through for years with a weak body, hampered every step of the way by said body and only now was he beginning to reap the rewards after so long. Naruto pushed the thoughts from his mind, continuing his studies and pondering tomorrow when Kakashi suspected Zabuza and his accomplice would attack again.

As the fated day arrived and Team 7 along with Tazuna left the house, Naruto waited for someone to strike from the shadows, using multiple Kage Bunshin to try and see anyone who would attack. Half an hour later and Naruto saw two idiots lackadaisically walking towards the house of the bridge builder, talking about how good it would be to put the ninja in their places when they had hostages who they would kill at a moment's notice.

Naruto sighed, thinking of the time and chakra wasted only for these two baboons to show up, Naruto killed them quickly, silently, hiding the bodies in a scroll to dump later. He then left a Kage Bunshin as he proceeded towards the bridge, curious as to how the fight there was going.

He arrived to find Sakura standing beside the bridge builder, Kakashi engaging Zabuza in a second one-sided fight as Natsumi and Sasuke were stuck inside a dome made up of ice.

'Hyoton, must be a Yuki member from Kirigakure then, one of the last considering the bloodline purges going on, their blood will be invaluable to my experiments. What's that?'

A loud chirping of birds could be heard from within the ice dome, as well as a curious sound of swirling wind.

" _Chidori!_ "

" _Rasengan!_ "

Naruto's eyes widened, knowing the two trademark techniques of the Yondaime and the copycat ninja, surprised at the use of two such advanced techniques. He had not realised the Natsumi was actually capable of using the Rasengan so easily and was shocked at how Sasuke was already able to use the Chidori despite only being with Kakashi for a couple of months.

Two explosions erupted within the dome, exposing two new holes within it through which Sasuke and Natsumi came out of, both looking extremely tired and hurt.

A masked nin who looked remarkably like a Hunter nin also appeared, breathing deeply at what must have been a costly jutsu, yet still throwing senbons at his two opponents who were dodging like hell.

However the two prodigies were able to coordinate their attacks together, with Natsumi distracting the ice wielding nin long enough that they didn't notice the shurikens Sasuke had thrown actually had wire attached to them. Zabuza's accomplice managed to avoid or deflect most of the shuriken, however a few managed to cut fairly deeply into the boy's thigh, making it collapse for a moment and providing both Natsumi and Sasuke the opening they needed as they began some handseals.

" _Fuuton: Daitoppa_ "

" _Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu_ "

The two jutsus combined, forming a conflagration which blew away all the senbon which were used as a last minute defence, catching the Hyoton wielder in the process, burning a part of his body away, after which he lay on the ground unmoving before the two Genin who now looked sick at the fact that they had just killed someone.

Kakashi used his own chidori to finish off Zabuza, who joined his unnamed companion in death, his precious blood covering the bridge, providing plenty of material for Naruto when he had the chance to acquire it.

They heard clapping as a small man emerged from the rapidly dissipating mist which had once again been conjured by Zabuza. 'This must be Gato, coming out with that army of thugs to kill all the exhausted shinobi, except Kakashi is far from exhausted.'

"So the 'Demon of the Mist' was only a baby demon after all, no matter as I will no longer have to pay him anything for the failed mission, not that I intended to pay him anyway, far too expensive you ninja are, makes for bad business."

Natsumi had an uncomprehending look, shocked that someone could so casually throw someone's life away like that.

"How could you be so inconsiderate, so callous about a person who just sacrificed his life!" Bellowed the young girl.

"Sacrifice? Oh dear, this was no misplaced sense of duty little girl, merely good business. Now with him dead and all of you tired I can use these good men here, who are already under my employment by the way, to kill you, thus stopping the bridge builder all for no cost except a bonus to each man who kills one of you and brings the bridge builder before me. Kill them!"

With an imperious wave of his hand the thugs charged towards them, he decided to help Kakashi kill them all, as the Jounin used some ninjutsu in conjunction with various other skills to kill the majority of the unskilled thugs while Naruto picked off the remainder of them.

"Please spare me, I'll do anything, money, contacts, women, wine, slaves, anything you want!"

"I'm very glad you said that Gato because you do have something I want, I'm sure you'll happily give me any codes and all the locations of your hidden stashes, contract rights, so on and so forth in exchange for your life, right?" The Sharingan wielder's presence was formidable, forcing Gato to cower against the ground, quivering at the feeling that now permeated the air around him.

The whimpering fool gave up everything Kakashi had asked for, at the end of which the ninja smiled happily as if nothing had happened.

"So y-you'll let me go now?"

"Of course I'll let you go, I have a deal to honour after all," Gato began smiling, thinking he had escaped death, but his smile soon vanished at the man's next words "I'll let you go into the good hands of these villagers, I'm sure that they will know exactly what to do with you."

Still eye-smiling, the Jounin turned to the villagers who had just arrived, giving them access to the small man, whom they grabbed, screaming, taking him back to the village to deal with as they wanted.

The fiasco of Gato now dealt with, Kakashi turned towards his Genin, seeing Sakura with Tazuna next to her, still protecting the client as she should be whilst putting her fledgling Iryō ninjutsu skills to good use and healing a little of the damage done to his other two Genin.

As Kakashi checked on his team, Naruto surreptitiously made a Kage Bunshin, sending them to collect blood and tissue from the bodies of Zabuza and his accomplice as he made his way towards Kakashi and the others, who were just finishing their report.

"…you did well, I'll help you get through your first kill Sasuke, Natsumi, but just remember for now that it was for Tazuna, Nami and to protect each other, you have both made me proud."

The last Hatake turned towards Naruto, his eyes now containing a darker glint.

"Naruto why have you abandoned your post at Tazuna's house?"

Unsurprised by the direction of his 'leader's' thoughts, Naruto began a report of his own, including how he had left a clone behind after dispatching the thugs who attempted to kidnap Tsunami and Inari, but only that it was an elemental bunshin he had learnt with his previous team.

"Very well but don't disobey my orders again, understand?"

"Hai Kakashi-san."

Nodding Kakashi gathered the team and he destroyed the bodies except for their heads to prove they had kill them both, taking the Kubikiribōchō, sealing it inside a scroll to be used later. Naruto breathed a silent sigh of relief as said events happened, relieved that Kakashi hadn't caught him gathering the DNA of the two shinobi for later experimentation and eventual extraction.

He never spotted the extra close eye the Jounin paid him, the suspicious narrowing at the tension that was released from his shoulders.

The next few weeks fell into a familiar pattern of training, which Naruto was still denied as he had to protect Tazuna's family in the event that any remaining thugs of Gato's attempted to get revenge by killing them. So he resorted to his fuuinjutsu once more, happily conducting further experiments with the use of Haku's blood (he learned the name from the report of Natsumi and Sasuke) added into the mix, it provided further details for analysis, contributing heavily towards Naruto's understanding of the exact problem with multiple bloodlines and thus beginning to come up with a most ingenious solution.

* * *

 _Author's Note_

Apologies for the slightly late update, I was out all day Saturday and didn't have enough time in the morning to upload. Moving on, this particular chapter is in part a filler, not because I have suddenly ran out of ideas but because I feel it is necessary for the plot to advance. My apologies if this chapter is slightly too angst-filled, I am afraid it will get worse (not by much) before it gets better, so please bear with me.

As is the way with fillers I am not completely satisfied with this chapter, I feel that it lacks a certain something or I have slightly skimmed over the character development, however with the way I have planned the story I can't do too much else lest I mess with the timeline of events too much.

Irregardless I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, so until next week, Ja ne!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

After an additional fortnight, the bridge was finished, being named the Great Bridge of Hi no Kuni, which would make the Daimyo very happy at both the name and extra trade.

The five returned to Konoha, four of the group conversing happily as the other was an outcast amongst them for failing the mission his team had been sent out to undertake. Naruto didn't mind the silence; however he was worried about the consequences of what would happen once his report was submitted alongside Kakashi's to his 'father' who would take this as another failure of his.

"Team 7 you did a good job, kept a cool head and obeyed my instructions, go and take a break you're dismissed for now, meet up tomorrow at the regular time and place."

The trio of Genin nodded, separating afterwards to go home and relax, sprouting off a tale about their awesome mission, needing no exaggeration about what had happened seeing as how dangerous it was.

Kakashi turned to the remaining 'Genin' looking at him condescendingly, hiding the suspicion within him at seeing Naruto collect the blood of the two missing nin during the mission and using a kinjutsu to do so.

"Naruto come with me, you must give a report on what happened before I arrived," the Jounin slowly made his way to the Hokage Tower, taking into account Naruto's slow pace and inability to travel quickly.

After they had arrived and made their way past the receptionist, a muted "Enter" came when Kakashi knocked on the door to his sensei's office. What awaited Naruto were chips of ice staring straight at him, allowing no reprieve from the unflinching stare of his 'father'.

"I will hear your report in a moment Kakashi-kun but I want a clear picture of what happened from the very beginning and from your preliminary report Naruto will know everything," Minato relented for a moment and gave a soft, kind look to his only remaining student.

"Genin, report."

Ice gazed at him once more, no emotions or worry present within their depths. Naruto returned the stare with the same eyes as he gave his report in a clipped tone of voice, revealing none of his emotions.

Afterwards the Yondaime asked Kakashi for his report in a softer tone of voice, asking questions along the way and praising the man for taking out the missing nin, also checking on the status of his daughter and Sasuke who had taken their first kill.

"Very well then Kakashi I shall talk with Natsumi today and visit the Uchiha later on, hopefully my words will somewhat calm them. You may remain as I decide Naruto's punishment."

"Hai sensei," the Elite Jounin turned his eyes towards Naruto, plunging the room into a stale silence, the tension rising like a coiled snake about to spring.

"You went on a mission which had clearly gone above your own level, endangering the civilian you were assigned to protect just for the sake of your own damn ego, you shame our village and the principles we were founded upon, the Will of Fire. You then disobeyed a direct order from a superior who had ordered you to stay with the civilian family, what if more of Gato's men had come to take the two after the first two had been killed? It would have caused the mission to be failed as a direct result of your stupidity! For this you will not be allowed to do anything except D-ranks for a period of 6 months, after which your case will be reviewed. Even after this you will only be allowed to go on a C-rank if you are with an Elite Jounin and their team. Furthermore you not be given the opportunity to become a Chunin for a minimum of four years.

"Finally I want the scroll with the evidence you killed the Demon Brothers now and I will hand over the bounty for said missing nins to Team 7 seeing as you aren't deserving of it after your foolish decisions. Now get out of my sight!"

With that order the seething boy exited the room, fuming at the ridiculously unjust punishment for what, continuing with the mission as his sensei had ordered, for nearly dying after fighting for his life?

On top of that the man had taken _his_ bounty away from him, denying what was so rightfully his after his team had killed the former Chunins, not Kakashi's greenhorns.

As Naruto left the Hokage's office, Minato slumped in his chair, raising his hand to his forehead as a weary sigh left his lips, "Where did I go wrong with that boy Kakashi-kun? Sometimes it's as if he isn't even Kushina and I's child, he simply has none of our talent for anything. No matter, with this punishment I won't have to worry about him for a few more years and I can concentrate on Natsumi again, her training takes priority considering the destiny she has to fulfil."

"I agree Minato-sensei, there is little else you can do with Naruto and Natsumi-chan's training is more important. However I have something more disturbing to add to my report."

Minato sat up straight in his chair at hearing Kakashi's unsure and sharp voice, anything which could disturb a veteran ANBU and S-rank shinobi was nothing to half-heartedly listen to.

"What is it Kakashi?"

"At the end of the mission as I was listening to the report given to me by Sasuke and Natsumi, Naruto formed a kage bunshin and took some blood from both Zabuza and his accomplice, Haku."

A frown marred the Yondaime's normally smooth face as he began to speak his thoughts out aloud, "A kage bunshin? But the boy doesn't have the reserves for such an advanced technique, he can barely perform the kawarimi last I looked and how did he even learn that technique in the first place, surely that sensei of theirs didn't teach them the technique?

"Why would Naruto want their blood? What could he even do with it? I don't have the time nor the resources to do an in-depth investigation of the boy for now, too much trouble with Rice and this shadowy organisation that Jiraiya-sensei is trying to find more about. Kakashi I want you to keep an eye out for any suspicious activities that Naruto undertakes as will I but the boy really can't do all that much with blood from two people, although the kage bunshin worries me slightly, we'll confront him when times are less tense."

Kakashi nodded at his sensei to acknowledge the informal command and headed back home to rest after the excursion to Wave.

* * *

Naruto sped to Training Ground 23 in a blind rage and released all of his anger on the environment around him, pummelling everything into dust using his taijutsu and nothing else, practising for hours as the blur of anger began to subside after hitting something for so long.

After many hours Naruto slumped down in defeat which left his mind wondering on the events that had transpired.

He found that he was genuinely sad for the death of his sensei and comrades, they were nice individuals and good shinobi who had never bothered him or asked about his past. Naruto held the most respect for Kage who knew he was the son of the man he resented but had just treated him as another reject like himself.

The True Uzumaki vowed to fulfil his sensei's final wish, to achieve his ambition of becoming greater than any other shinobi in existence. To do this he would immediately work on his fuuinjutsu whilst he continued training in his other skills so that by the time the Chunin Exams for everyone else came along, he would be a low Jounin level opponent with his current skills.

As such Naruto only engaged in solo D-ranks and training for the next few weeks until the Chunin Exams. Said training was gruelling, leaving Naruto completely exhausted as he trained the innate abilities he had absorbed to their fullest potential, enabling Naruto to call himself a solid Tokubetsu Jounin in terms of ability.

However just two months before the Chunin Exams Naruto had the biggest breakthrough in fuuinjutsu that had been made in decades, if not centuries.

He had managed to merge two bloodlines together.

Naruto discovered that bloodlines were primarily made of raw Yang chakra and therefore was breathing more life into a form which already had it and was unable to hold even more life within itself, it resulted in the breakdown of the DNA itself. However if one supplied the body with huge amounts of Yin chakra, giving form which said life could merge into, making imagination into reality, it allowed the body to accommodate multiple bloodlines, although you would be left weakened for a couple of weeks as your body adjusted to these pure expressions of chakra.

He conducted further tests, checking for any decomposing of the body tissue or other side effects, but nothing happened, the cells remained stable.

So it came to pass that Naruto once more returned to the genjutsu hidden house in the red light district. He had carved seals across the training grounds of Konoha which picked up any excess Yin chakra, a task which he had been forced to devote a week's worth of Kage Bunshin to, channelling it into reservoirs of said chakra that Naruto had created to accumulate it in preparation for this day.

Naruto once more sat in the centre of a cacophony of seals which were even more intricate than before, connecting to the reservoirs of Yin chakra to feed into his body as he absorbed the bloodline of Haku.

Naruto began drinking the blood of Haku, activating the seals and hoping for the best as the moment of truth came to pass.

Pain, Naruto knew of it, experienced it every time he grafted new abilities onto himself but he nevertheless had grown used to it. This was a whole new level of pain as his body fought against the new chakra and what it was trying to implant into him, Yin chakra coursing into his body and combining itself with the Yang chakra that represented the bloodline.

Here came the crucial part, for Naruto had to take part in the process he created, he had to force the Yin chakra to obey his wishes to force reality to combine two incompatible bloodlines into a body that wasn't naturally meant to contain it. If his concentration faltered for even a moment, even with the agony that was coursing his body, Naruto would go insane from said pain and would soon die, his chakra system rupturing with the yang influx coming from a second bloodline.

Naruto's will took shape, slowly making the Yin chakra that was attached to the Hyoton chakra merge with the rest of his chakra, mixing the two and then spreading said mixture throughout his body.

The process took a long time and Naruto felt a variety of weird sensations that he figured came with the assimilation of Hyoton. His body felt as if it was being sliced to pieces and then drowned before it finally felt as if an arctic tundra had made its residence within his veins, but after hours of it Naruto finally felt the pain subside so that he could open his eyes. His body was stuck on the floor, he didn't have enough strength to move and would remain on the floor of the abandoned house for the rest of the day, sleeping.

When he woke up the next day, the blond-haired child was ravenous and pigged out with a huge breakfast at Yakiniku Q's. Afterwards he slowly made his way to his own training grounds, his desire to see if his experiment worked too great to allow his body to heal completely.

Naruto had no real idea as to how to form Hyoton chakra, but knew it involved the usage of both wind and water chakras, although said ability should come somewhat naturally to him now.

Naruto formed the ram sign to help focus his chakra and mixed the chakras of wind and water together in a way that felt natural. It exhausted Naruto, who fell to the floor because his body was still so weak after conducting this experiment on himself, but in the middle of his hand lay a shard of ice that had been formed by him.

Naruto gazed at it in wonder and accomplishment, knowing he had surpassed his ancestors and could mix any bloodlines he wished together, giving him access to powers far beyond anyone else.

But firstly Naruto would train in the powers he had to advance to a level beyond his peers, including his sister and her pathetic rival, Sasuke. He made a new goal to make himself a mid-level Jounin in skill by the time these exams came around and would continue advancing so that he would never feel the humiliation of being so scared by someone like Zabuza ever again.

Naruto returned to his training for the next month and a half, advancing both his genjutsu and ninjutsu abilities to that of an advanced Jounin, the latter due in major part to the blood of Zabuza which helped to enhance his body even further than what it had previously been at, granting Naruto an increase in strength as well as his new bloodline which gave him access to unique jutsu that he could utilize and implement into battle plans. Naruto paid particular attention to both his base speed and reaction speed, having had his eyes opened by both Zabuza's and Kakashi's speed he now knew that a huge factor in all shinobi battles was the speed with which you could move or react to an opponent's attack. Hence why the blonde outcast applied special gravity seals to his body which he only took off when he went to sleep. Naruto's other abilities were that of a 'normal' but not 'experienced' or advanced Jounin.

* * *

On the day of the Chunin Exams, Naruto began his day like any other, completing some D-ranks and then disappearing off to his own training grounds to make it look as though he was participating in his daily routine.

But once Naruto had reached Training Ground 23 he used the hidden seals he had implanted within the academy to determine what actually happened in said exam. To be frank he was disappointed at the level of competency required to become a Chunin, not being able to count floors and seeing a basic genjutsu, this was Genin stuff.

Naruto was just as disappointed with Ibiki Morino, Konoha's resident torture specialist whose exam only consisted of spying on each other without being obvious and getting caught, Naruto was somewhat surprised at how many idiots actually failed at this point.

He was impressed with the psychological attack Ibiki placed on the Genin with the 'tenth' question, a test of leadership and courage to forge on into the unknown, a worthy test at last.

Naruto held no reaction for the eccentric entrance of Anko Mitarashi, but did react when he realised that they would be going to Training Ground 44, aptly named 'The Forest of Death', a place where he didn't have any seals to listen to the exams going on in there and thus could not find out any more about the exams.

Naruto cursed at his bad fortune, he never placed seals in the Training Grounds because despite how small they were, there was a tendency for them to be destroyed and it wasn't worth constantly creating and setting up new ones. Shielding the other seal with another one would make them detectable, meaning it wasn't a viable option for him.

Naruto decided to focus on his own training once more, hoping that this day would be the one where his kage bunshin would finally crack the secret to the eighth level of True Uzumaki sealing, i.e. being able to use dead tissue samples for bloodline grafting. This was not to simply advance his skills to the next level and become arguably the greatest fuuinjutsu master in existence, but also a part of a new plan he had been constructing.

Naruto theorised that with the influx of foreign shinobi and dignitaries in the Chunin Exam Finals, which he knew was a series of one-on-one fights, there would be a decrease of guards in particular areas to provide more security and support in other areas which would be more critical to protect at this time. Therefore the guard detail around the Hokage's tombs would perhaps be lessened to one or two ANBU, potentially allowing Naruto to slip by them and obtain what he needed, skin from each of the dead Kages.

Naruto could not afford to waste such a valuable resource, the things he could obtain from the dead shinobi made him shiver in anticipation. Sarutobi Hiruzen would greatly increase his affinity to all of the elements, Senju Tobirama would provide Naruto with a godlike suiton affinity which he could make use of, particularly for his Hyoton techniques. But the crème de la crème was Senju Hashirama, a man who would not only grant him a godlike doton affinity in addition to his suiton, but would also bestow upon him the legendary Mokuton bloodline, said to be the second strongest bloodline of all time, just below the Rinnegan itself.

If Naruto could claim this bloodline for himself he would be virtually impossible to stop once he had mastered it like the Shodaime had. Naruto had also hypothesised that he would gain what he called the 'True Senju' body, something which would grant him the perfect chakra control of the Senju, a body even stronger than his current Uzumaki one so he could handle even larger amounts of chakra and a predisposition towards using nature chakra.

Yes he had only recently found out about nature chakra and senjutsu, a unique ability to use the chakra of the very world around him to enhance his own capabilities. This was detailed in Uzumaki history scrolls which appeared alongside the next level of sealing, he had access to nearly all of the scrolls regarding the Uchiha and Senju now, which he had gotten when he became a level 7 True Uzumaki sealing master. However there was one scroll left detailing history left for him according to the most recent scroll he had read, which speculated on the origins of not only the Uzumaki, but also those of the Uchiha, Senju and even Hyuuga clans, insinuating that they all had a common ancestor. Naruto assumed he would get this final history scroll once he had mastered the transference of bloodlines via dead material.

The very thought of such a reward like using senjutsu thrilled the boy who was currently practising his taijutsu under the next level of his gravity seals to further enhance his body's strength. His taijutsu was at a good Jounin level now, primarily attributed to his mother's Uzumaki body and the speed obtained from his recent training and more importantly his father's chakra.

This also reflected in the style of his taijutsu, able to hit hard but at great speed, never committing himself too much into a strike as Uzumaki were wont to do because their body could take any hits in return.

The next day Naruto started his normal routine until he got an alarm from his fuuinjutsu tag in the Hokage's office.

See Naruto had placed a secondary function into his listening seals, they could also detect the intent and levels of chakra within the room it was in, thus telling Naruto how people were in the room, whether they had been in combat recently and give some idea as to their state of mind at that particular moment in time.

Well Naruto had a burning which indicated agitated/hostile emotions and multiple chakra signatures, lots of them. Naruto began to listen in to the conversation that was happening in the Hokage's office.

"-reports Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chunin Exams. Team 7 was able to hold him off but was ultimately defeated by him, Anko arrived just after having sent a message to inform you Hokage-sama."

"Reinforce all of Konoha's boundaries, I want eyes everywhere to find him and his accomplices. We changed the barrier seal so he either has his own way of getting in or is more likely to have someone informing him of how to get past it. Send out a general order to all shinobi about this, minimal guarding on everywhere that is non-essential.

"Send a message to Tsunade and Jiraiya to await Kushina and I at the tower in the centre of the forest, we shall see what damage Orochimaru has done. Kami help me but if I interfere with the exams Team 7 will be disqualified or I'll be accused of favouritism."

"Natsumi had better be alright or I'll make you wish you were never born Namikaze."

Naruto heard some shuffling, a crackle and then nothing.

So Orochimaru had infiltrated the exams, attacked Team 7, either for Sasuke or Natsumi and had escaped, causing a mass panic and all shinobi to be directed to… essential areas from non-essential areas. Non-essential areas like the Hokage's tomb, making a skeleton crew guard it?

'Perfect, this is the best opportunity for me to gain access to the tombs undetected as any deaths will be attributed to Orochimaru allowing me to get away scot free.'

Naruto dropped everything he was doing, heading for the location of the Hokage's tombs which he had discovered some time ago now after he had overheard a conversation on them through his seals in the Hokage's office when Jiraiya, Tsunade and Minato were contemplating visiting their bodies out of nostalgia one night.

For even though there was a grave dedicated to each of the Hokage in the massive cemetery that Konoha had, these were only 'public' graves which didn't actually contain he bodies of these legendary shinobi. No, their graves were located in a well concealed and innocuous looking training ground which had a powerful genjutsu shielding it, multiple fuuinjutsu seals drawn up by Mito Uzumaki originally and added to by Kushina and Minato and finally had a full squad of four ANBU guarding it normally.

Yet due to this crisis only one, recently inducted ANBU remained, as all the more experienced ones were out looking for the Snake Sannin, wary that Orochimaru might try to gain some of the secrets of Konoha or learn of the more recent updates to their barriers so that he could later infiltrate Konoha as he wished.

Unfortunately for this ANBU not only was Naruto able to bypass the genjutsu through gratuitous use of fuuinjutsu seals instead of detectable chakra, Naruto found the fuuinjutsu seals applied around the area to be child's play to disable without being detected by the ANBU. Even if Mito Uzumaki had been hailed as the greatest fuuinjutsu master the world had seen, she was merely a public figure and had never learnt the secrets which the True Uzumaki held, as such she was a novice in their eyes.

So the ANBU did not expect anyone to have gotten close enough use two very recognisable golden chains which emerged from the ground and penetrated straight through his body into his heart and head.

"I may not like using their techniques, but I must admit that they are merely tools for me to obtain what I want. Very useful tools if they let me kill ANBU undetected."

Naruto felt no remorse for killing the ANBU, a fellow shinobi of the leaf for the Yondaime's son had long since lost any respect for the village and its inhabitants, he cared not for them and if they were obstacles to his goals for the future he would remove them. He had isolated himself enough from others since the incident regarding Mizuki and the deaths of his comrades during the mission to Nami no Kuni that he now held no loyalty for the village or anybody within it seeing as how his team had been treated with such indifference in regards to their deaths.

The blonde genius dispelled the remaining genjutsu and then proceeded into a tunnel which was long and narrow, making its way deep into the earth. Naruto finally found himself in a large hall that was reminiscent of a catacomb.

There were sconces with torches in ready to be lit and once Naruto had done so he looked at the large epitaph which was a central feature of the hall, it read:

 _Here lie those brave leaders who have given their all for country, village and the people._

 _Here lie the Hokage who have devoted and sacrificed their lives so that Konoha and its inhabitants may live on._

 _May you as their successor forever follow in their footsteps and protect the next generation._

 _May the Will of Fire forever burn brightly within you!_

Naruto scoffed at what was upon the tablet, writing it off as mere ideological doctrine for future Hokages to swallow and enslave themselves to. He quickly disregarded the tablet looking for the prizes he sought, the tombs of the three Hokage.

They were not hard to find as each tomb was grand, clearly illustrating that these were the first Hokage of the village and thus the most important. Each one had a statue depicting the Hokage in question in their prime, presenting a strong image for future generations to admire.

Again Naruto ignored it all, disabling the fuuinjutsu protections laid upon the graves and gaining access to the carcasses within.

The Sandaime had already decayed significantly after a decade since he last drew breath. Nevertheless Naruto easily retrieved a skin sample from the man as he had not lost too much to decay at this point in time.

The Nidaime however was significantly worse off with only a few small patches of skin remaining on his body, the rest having decayed after nearly half a century since his death, still the blonde obtained the samples he needed for later use.

In the Shodaime's grave Naruto could only gape in surprise seeing as how the body had decayed relatively little after so long. He hypothesised that it was because Hashirama possessed the True Senju body, meaning his connection with nature was strong enough to last even into death and thus preserve his body for a far longer period of time than normal. Naruto made sure to take plenty of samples from the Shodaime for later experimentation.

The True Uzumaki was ecstatic at his desecration of the Hokage's bodies, already attempting to calculate how much this would push his plans forwards, particularly Hashirama's cells whilst he made his exit.

Yet just as Naruto emerged from the tomb he froze in his tracks as he felt a powerful and malevolent chakra enter his senses. From the shadows emerged a man with very pale white skin and yellow eyes that contained a slit pupil. There was no mistaking it, Orochimaru of the Sannin had arrived.

Naruto had never felt more fear, he knew just how powerful this man was, he could feel it in the air as a crushing amount of killing intent descended upon him yet Orochimaru showed no signs that he was emitting this oppressing feeling. Zabuza felt like a kitten now compared to the monster that stood before him and was examining him like a curiosity he would love to dig into.

"Well what do we have here, the little-known son of the Yondaime it seems, Naruto-kun is it? How delightful that you already killed the ANBU here for me and disabled all the traps, but I must wonder why you are delving into the Hokage tombs hmm? Tsk, tsk you're being a naughty boy Naruto-kun and I should punish you for such disobedience shouldn't I?"

The killing intent rose even further, forcing Naruto onto his knees with his head bowed to the _thing_ before him as he stalked closer to Naruto, licking his lips as he neared the boy, speaking in a mere whisper.

"I really should punish you, get revenge for your father taking the position which was rightfully mine but I doubt the man would care if anything happened to you and I am very interested in what you are doing so I suppose I'll leave you alone for now Naruto-kun. But we'll be meeting again, I'll make sure of that Naruto-kun, kukukuku."

With that ominous statement the man disappeared completely to Naruto, both physically and from his senses. He stayed for a few moments, sweating as he wondered if it was a trick or the man had really let Naruto go with just a warning as he also recovered from the presence the man had exuded which affected Naruto so.

After a little longer Naruto quickly went his own way so that he wasn't seen by either Orochimaru or the shinobi trying to find the man. He fled to his training ground, sitting in a meditative position once he reached the area and contemplated what had just happened between himself and Orochimaru.

He once again cursed his own weakness but what disturbed him more was the implication that he would once more see the snake in the future for the specific purpose of finding out what he was up to. He did not know 'when' in the future this may be, meaning Naruto had to prepare himself for his next encounter with the Sannin.

These worries were soon replaced by giddiness as Naruto basked in his achievement, deciding to forego any training for the rest of the day in order to experiment with this new and unique material so that he might finally become a recognised level 8 sealing master, therefore gaining access to the last of the Uzumaki scrolls.

This obsession would extend for the next few days as Naruto locked himself away with his experiments to concentrate on using dead matter to revive bloodlines. That wasn't to say he completely neglected his training Naruto was far too smart to do such a foolish thing so he had kage bunshin work on his fuuinjutsu, elemental techniques and bloodlines as he trained in his taijutsu. In addition to this Naruto had one kage bunshin monitoring his seals at all times, as a result he learnt what happened in the Forest of Death.

Not only had Orochimaru attacked Team 7, he had applied a curse mark to Sasuke which had been sealed completely by Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya who together deciphered and eliminated it. The boy had protested because of the strength he felt that he gained from it, when he was told that the seal actually weakened him overall as it stunted his growth so he wouldn't become too powerful for Orochimaru to control, Sasuke lost all objections to its removal.

Those who passed the second stage were then forced to go through a preliminary round as there were too many of them. The blonde took little notice of the matches and was only interested in the last match between the one called Gaara and Rock Lee.

It appeared that Lee was well on his way to becoming a great taijutsu user just like his sensei but had been crippled by his opponent Gaara. Thankfully Tsunade had patched the fledgling taijutsu expert with her legendary healing skills. Still Gaara had peaked Naruto's interest, the boy had the most unique ability to manipulate sand as both a brilliant defensive and offensive weapon.

What was fascinating was something that he overheard from a conversation in the Hokage's office, the boy was the Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi. No wonder he had such an affinity for sand, the Bijuu would naturally grant its host something to defend itself with.

The True Uzumaki had long since had a fascination with the Bijuu and their origins; he knew that the Uzumaki scroll contained more information although it seemed that this information was contained in the level 8 section of the scrolls, presumably to stop any amateurs from attempting something and bringing knowledge of the True Uzumaki being reborn to the rest of the world.

This only made Naruto even more determined to access this final level within the month that he had until the Chunin Exam Finals, another titbit he had learned from his kage bunshin. A month should be more than enough for him to enhance his fuuinjutsu skills and then graft the bloodlines he had gained into his body.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

Regarding the Cursed Seal: I feel that with the survival of the Uchiha, they would have pushed Minato for a solution to the seal on Sasuke. With a combination of Minato, a fuuinjutsu genius, Kushina, who is experienced in sealing herself and comes from a clan who has developed seals which are essentially contracts with Gods and Jiraiya, an experienced fuuinjutsu master who also has insight into the twisted mind of his teammate; I feel that they would be able to develop a counter, hence why Sasuke has had the Cursed Seal removed (and consequently Anko as well although I haven't specified this).

This is not to say the seal no longer matters, there are of course other individuals who have the seal and others who Orochimaru may place it on should they become his subordinates. So until next time, Ja ne!


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **The Next Day…**

'Of course, it's so simple now that I have finally achieved it, I wonder why I never saw it before. At last I can look upon the final scrolls of the True Uzumaki, but I shall do that after I graft the abilities of the Nidaime and Sandaime Hokages onto myself.'

Naruto looked at the sky for a moment as he finished absorbing the memories of the kage bunshin who had cracked the secret to using dead matter to gain the abilities of those who had died. It turns out that it just took a simple application of yang chakra to breathe life into previously dead cells, but one had to use the correct amount of yang chakra as too little would do nothing and too much would cause the cells to degrade as they couldn't cope with so much life within them. Ideally you would pour as much yang chakra as the dead person had within them when still alive for optimal results. Yet he had to also balance the Yang chakra with the necessary Yin chakra needed to integrate the bloodline into his body.

The fuuinjutsu genius made his way to the abandoned house once more after obtaining the necessary samples for the grafting, deciding to upgrade the seals and genjutsu that kept the place hidden once he was there.

Naruto drew the familiar seals once more, adding a few new ones which collected the ambient yang chakra in the atmosphere. They would then channel the correct amount into him after a few limiters were drawn to regulate how much yang chakra entered his body during the sealing.

Naruto injected the samples of the two Hokage into himself, having decided to obtain both of their abilities at the same time in order to speed up the process. He was worried about the pain, it would certainly be a difficult procedure, the addition of Sarutobi and more importantly, Senju, blood would certainly cause a change in his own DNA structure. He had been working on pain dampening seals which would limit the amount of pain his body could feel, but they were not yet complete, having only recently ventured into the realm of Iryō ninjutsu.

He screamed out the moment the process began, the all-encompassing pain which consumed his mind. However he endured it and knew that he was successful once he was able to feel the chakra as well as the natures aligned to that chakra of those near him, an ability which was clearly from the Nidaime Hokage. In addition he could feel a humongous increase in his chakra reserves, putting him on par with a kage.

With this confirmation, the still shaking genin got up and made his way back to his 'home' where he had left the many Uzumaki scrolls he had.

The boy did not fear anyone discovering them, this was not only because no one ever entered his room but also because he had hidden the scrolls under layers of genjutsu and seals which would require genjutsu and fuuinjutsu masters to break them.

As Naruto entered the large family home, he groaned internally as he saw that the 'family' was gathered around the table having dinner.

The place fell silent as Naruto entered but they quickly carried on talking as he made his way upstairs, hovering when he heard them talk about Natsumi's training so far.

"So how's Natsumi-chan doing Kushina-chan, Jiraiya-sensei?" This came from Minato, who was unable to train his daughter else it would show favouritism again even if they were related, so he had given the task to his wife and sensei.

"She can use seven Uzumaki chains at once and controls three tails of the fox's chakra dattebane! Our little baby is awesome in everything else!" Kushina positively gushed over her daughter's progress in such an important area as it would allow Natsumi to better protect herself and kick the butt of Mikoto's son.

Everyone else sweat dropped at the very basic report which told no one anything about Natsumi's current level. Minato turned to Jiraiya who responded with a much more in-depth report.

"Heh the gaki is pretty impressive, her taijutsu skills are low Jounin but will probably be a solid Jounin by the time the exams come. Her ninjutsu repertoire is already at a good Jounin level and will probably be at a high Jounin level come the exams, she can use A-rank futon jutsu quite well and has just started using B-rank suiton jutsu. In addition Ma and Pa have expressed some interest in teaching the gaki Senjutsu when she's a bit older and her body can better handle it."

The table gasped slightly at that, even Naruto was surprised at Natsumi learning such a powerful thing so young.

"Really, now that would be something to see, I wonder how much havoc the gaki will cause with sage mode," Tsunade chuckled at the thought as did the rest of the table as Natsumi blushed when the adults talked about how much mischief she could get into with her pranks.

"She's gonna need everything she can get to beat Gaara and Sasuke," this comment came from Kakashi which caused the table to fall silent once more at the Elite Jounin's remark.

"And why is that Kakashi-kun?"

"Well we all saw Gaara's strength but I'm more concerned about how fast Sasuke is progressing, Itachi is being fairly brutal with the boy who has unlocked the third stage of his Sharingan. It looks as though Itachi wants the boy to be able to use it at its fullest potential while also not relying upon it too much. I've been asked by both Itachi and Fugaku to help him improve his usage of the Chidori seeing as how Sasuke has a powerful raiton affinity and has already learnt the basics of the technique, I agreed as he will need the technique to beat Gaara."

"How strong do you think he'll be by the time the exams come then Kakashi?"

"High level Jounin speed and genjutsu, solid Jounin level taijutsu and ninjutsu, I don't know if Itachi will give him the crow contract or not."

Natsumi frowned at how powerful her rival will become the Chunin Exam Finals, "Well then I'll just train even harder, Kaa-chan, Ero-Sennin, you both have to make me train harder and give me awesome skills to beat Sasuke without using the fox's chakra dattebane!"

The table chuckled at the exuberance and Natsumi's verbal tic and continued with their meal, discussing plans for Natsumi's training and how she should counter the abilities of the Uchiha when they would surely meet in the final match of the exams.

"Hey, how is Sakura doing kaa-chan, Kakashi-sensei?"

The innocent question by Natsumi made the other two, who had forgotten their third student, blush in embarrassment, it was here that Tsunade began to chuckle.

"What's so funny Baa-chan!?" A tick mark appeared on Tsunade's brow at Natsumi's affectionate/insulting name for her, but she regained her calm composure.

"Your teammate approached me not long ago asking to learn Iryō ninjutsu in order to 'help my teammates and heal them after their reckless stunts' I believe she said. The girl is weak physically but has perfect chakra control, I think she'll be able to learn everything I can teach her, even my best techniques. So the pink haired brat is my new apprentice."

A pin drop could be heard in the room as Tsunade had once sworn she would never take another apprentice and only continued to teach Shizune because she was related to Dan and had promised to look after her, eventually establishing a very close relationship with the girl. This meant that Sakura had a huge amount of potential if Tsunade was willing to go back on her word as the Sannin had very high standards in order to take anyone on as a full-time apprentice.

"Well we've definitely gotta step up your training now gaki, else Sakura will be punching you to kingdom come if she inherits Tsunade's legendary temper, she might even-" Jiraiya said no more after Tsunade punched her former teammate, knocking him out and cracking the wall in the process. As the drama continued Naruto made his exit.

He smirked at hearing of the progress Team 7 were making, knowing that he himself was going to be at a far higher level considering how he was already at a solid Jounin level, thus by the time the exams came around Naruto intended to be at an Elite Jounin level, only being beaten by S-rank shinobi because of his lack of experience with his new abilities.

By this point he had entered his room, a sparse place because he spent so little time he spent inside it and therefore spent no time in decorating the place.

Naruto made his way to a specific section on the wall which had nothing obstructing it. Dispelling the complex genjutsu and fuuinjutsu seals he had placed upon it revealed a small storage seal which he also dispelled. Now holding a small scroll in his hands, Naruto opened it up and saw the familiar seal which he had first seen as a boy, a seal which was capable of scanning his genetic make-up in order to determine if he was capable of advancing to the next level of fuuinjutsu, an ingenious development of his people.

After a few minutes the scroll had obviously determined that Naruto had the appropriate skills, namely it had detected DNA from a clearly deceased individual which indicated that a True Uzumaki could advance to being a level 8 fuuinjutsu master.

Smoke filled the room as several scrolls were unsealed, as such Naruto created a few kage bunshin to help him sort out and read these scrolls.

He himself picked up a smaller scroll, usually a sign that it was a message as opposed to pure information.

 _Dear True Uzumaki,_

 _Now that you have achieved this prestigious level that has seldom been reached you are ready to hear our final secrets._

 _These are dangerous secrets which not only entail all our research on dojutsu and how to implant them into yourself, but also what we have learnt about the Senju, Uchiha and Hyuuga clans. These scrolls detail their history, their origins and speaks of what little we have learnt about their founder, the Rikudou Sennin._

 _In addition we have theorised as to why Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were so much stronger than any of their ancestors and what could happen if you grafted their abilities onto yourself._

 _My final request is this, if you manage to gain the powers of the Rikudou Sennin himself, if you are all but a God in strength I ask that you use these powers to resurrect us from death as hints from our most ancient scrolls have revealed and allow us to get our revenge on the fools who destroyed us._

 _Good luck_

 _Uzumaki Arashi,_

 _72_ _nd_ _Head of the True Uzumaki branch_

Naruto felt somewhat proud that he was given access to such important information and entrusted with the final wishes of the former clan head, the resurrection of his people, the True Uzumaki. Such things as family had little meaning to him, but allies who shared his cause, these people he could connect with.

He was excited as well. Excited at the implications of this, excited at what he would learn over the course of the next few days.

Naruto decided to postpone using Hashirama's cells for now, interested in what his predecessors had to say about the effects of such a thing.

Making up his mind, Naruto read for the rest of the day absorbing the information contained within the scrolls alongside his kage bunshin which dispelled regularly to provide context to other pieces of information as he read.

This would continue for the rest of the week, Naruto had his kage bunshin read as he began to practice his new/enhanced affinities.

This meant Naruto had major affinities for all the elements thus giving him access to a wide range of jutsu which he practiced with to reduce the number of hand seals required.

The blonde Uzumaki had no issues with controlling said affinities or his chakra in general as both the Nidaime and Sandaime were known for having a superb control over everything about themselves, this includes their chakra. This meant he had little to train in the way of chakra control, he was now more focused on mastering his control of each element.

Yet this was only the tip of the iceberg for the knowledge contained within the scrolls left to him was overwhelming.

Research with precise instructions on how to implant dojutsu bloodlines. The collective histories of the Uchiha, Senju and the Hyuuga, whom he had thought little of. This information included how they postulated that there were more advanced forms of the Sharingan and Byakugan which granted more powerful abilities, but they knew not how to unlock them.

Naruto learned of the two brothers who were both sons of the Rikudou Sennin and how the younger who had inherited his body was chosen as his successor. Whilst the elder who had inherited his eyes was seemingly disowned, Naruto found it almost amusing that the Senju-Uchiha rivalry began at their very foundations.

Scrolls which had been copied from the Hyuuga suggested that their family was descended from the younger brother of the Rikudou Sennin therefore making the Hyuuga just as old as the other two great clans of Konoha. It also mentioned that the man was able to use techniques similar to his older brother, which were just as powerful in their destructive abilities making Naruto agree with his ancestors that there had to be a higher level to the Byakugan as the Hyuuga had never shown such techniques before.

The final scroll detailed how his ancestors had pieced together information from all three clans from which they derived three conclusions:

That there had not always been nine Bijuu, at one point there was only one.

The second conclusion was that this one Bijuu was something else, something more, quite possibly related to the Shinju which was detailed in their legends as a primordial God.

The final thing the scrolls put forth was a mere idea, a breathless theory of awe and pure conjecture. The Rikudou Sennin may not have been the first person to wield chakra, for history never stated he was the original wielder of chakra, just the one who spread it throughout the world. In fact one ancient scrap of manuscript suggests that there was someone…greater.

In the back of Naruto's mind a plan began to form, a plan which involved the Bijuu, their chakra and fuuinjutsu.

Yet before Naruto devoted attention to or even considered these fledgling ideas he decided to investigate the effect that the Shodaime's cells may have on his body, using the research of his predecessors with that of his own involving multiple bloodlines.

For the second week after the second part of the Chunin Exams Naruto experimented, specifically with how much yin and yang chakra would be necessary to activate and implant the Mokuton wielder's cells.

The cost would be astronomical, far too much for Naruto to collect normally as he would have to have seals in all of the five great shinobi villages before he had enough yang chakra for the Shodaime's cells to activate.

As a result Naruto was forced to look elsewhere for a solution and he could only find one. To take and separate some of the yin and yang chakra contained within the Kyuubi.

This was a very dangerous idea as Natsumi was constantly monitored and was liable to detect if Naruto was pulling chakra from her prisoner.

But living in the same house had some good benefits, so the blonde genius developed a plan.

* * *

 **The Next Morning…**

He waited until the others had left the house, Minato for the Hokage Tower to work, Kushina and Natsumi to train.

Naruto then made his way into Natsumi's room after disabling four different detection seals, three barriers and one failsafe.

The boy blanched at the ostentatious room, the girl's obsession with orange was blatantly unhealthy, chairs, pillows, walls, it even had a picture of ramen for goodness' sake! The disturbed boy quickly placed and hid a Hiraishin seal in Natsumi's room, having more than enough ability to use a single seal, although multiple seals in a combat situation still eluded him. This granted him access that night swiftly and silently. He then placed an additional seal on her bed to force Natsumi into a deep sleep. As he exited Naruto reweaved the fuuinjutsu back into place, placing some extra parts into his seals which imitated chakra, thus making it feel as though Kushina and Minato had placed the seals as opposed to him.

During that night Naruto used the Hiraishin seal to get inside Natsumi's room finding her in a deep sleep. He placed a seal which replicated the effect of a Sharingan genjutsu on Natsumi, preventing her from waking up and slightly subjugating the fox within her.

Naruto used a final seal to draw out and subsequently store the chakra of the Kyuubi. It didn't take long as Natsumi's usage of the Bijuu's chakra in training had loosened her seal meaning it was easily drawn out by others.

After taking a considerable amount of chakra, Naruto removed any evidence of his seals and left using a Hiraishin seal he had inside his own room.

As the next day arrived, it saw Naruto shivering with anticipation as he made his way into the abandoned house under the assumption that this would be the most difficult as well as delicate procedure he had conducted.

Naruto separated the two components of the Kyuubi's chakra, a process which took several hours because of the reluctance of the semi-sentient chakra to be split apart.

Naruto then added many extra seals to the normal array as part of a process to direct the Kyuubi's chakra. In the end he had to use a triangular formation, one part containing the yin chakra, one part the yang and the third had himself within it.

Naruto injected Hashirama's DNA into himself, immediately activating the sealing array. He was glad for the pain inhibitors which he had perfected, without them Naruto would have been driven completely insane.

Each second felt like an hour, an eternity of suffering compacted into every moment. The boy knew not how long he had been there, only that it felt like it had been far too long as a war of chakras was fought inside of his body as each one sought to dominate the others, with only the yin and yang chakras of the Kyuubi holding him together.

Yet after eons of pain the Uzumaki finally felt the potent chakra of the Senju begin to merge with his own. This caused even more pain as said chakra forced his own pathways to open far wider than normal in order to accommodate the sheer amount of chakra that the Shodaime had.

As the final vestiges of pain left his system Naruto fell into a blissful state of unconsciousness. After an unknown amount of time Naruto woke up feeling very weak and had to almost drag himself to make his way back to his 'home'.

At this point the genin could not feel the changes that had occurred. It took Naruto a long time to get to the Yondaime's home because he could not use any chakra to assist, or even run back.

Part way through his trek back to his area of residence Naruto heard the current date and cringed at realising he had been out of it for five days. It was likely that he would be interrogated and punished once he finally entered through the door of the house.

Yet no punishment came. Not for a lack of people as the usual crew of his 'family' plus Jiraiya, Tsunade and Kakashi sat at the table eating ramen once more.

But no comment was made, just the usual silence followed by them ignoring his presence and dismissing the boy inside their heads.

Naruto knew that they didn't care about him, that he was all but a failure in their eyes however he became outraged that he was so underneath them that they didn't even realise he had been missing for the better part of a week.

'How dare they dismiss me so easily, how dare they write me off so much that they don't even acknowledge my existence after nearly a week of not seeing me. If Natsumi had disappeared for even a second a village wide lockdown would be in place with every shinobi searching for the 'princess'. I'll make them pay for this betrayal, for not acknowledging me and the accomplishments I have achieved.'

Naruto was not angry out of some sense of misplaced love or lingering trust in his family that they could redeem themselves. No, he was furious at the fact that they would write him off so easily. He resented how much focus was on Natsumi and her abilities when he was clearly superior to her in every way.

Naruto had no more time to spare on these pathetic people, making his way into his room where he would stay for a further two days in order to recover, doing nothing except eating and sleeping to gain energy.

* * *

After the third week from the Chunin preliminaries had passed Naruto made his way into Training Ground 23 for the first time in a week and began to practice his regular exercises before engaging in training.

They were easy, too easy. Even with his gravity seals adding extra weight to his body these exercises shouldn't be so easily completed as he hadn't long ago accessed this level of the gravity seal.

So Naruto deactivated his weights and decided to see how fast and strong he was, he was amazed by what he discovered.

He now had clearly low kage level speed and strength, finding that he could destroy trees with minimal effort from his own body and run around the training ground several times in mere seconds.

This was clearly a side effect of gaining the True Senju body. Instead of having to work his body to a more advanced level with the new potential he had, his body was already leagues ahead of his normal level, allowing his body to progress even further and at a far faster rate than before.

Giddy at this knowledge Naruto began his exercises again, only with the gravity seals far stronger to push his body once more.

Naruto then began to use the kage bunshin but stopped when he felt his reserves, they were HUGE. In fact his reserves now dwarfed every shinobi's in the village, matching even Natsumi's ridiculously advanced reserves. But his reserves had the capacity to increase even more than what they were currently at and it appeared that it came with perfect control as Naruto felt no difficulty in shaping his chakra.

As he used the kage bunshin Naruto was pleased to note that there were fifty before him, Naruto intended to use these clones to enhance his training. Not by having many clones do the same thing, they would just make the same mistakes until they dispelled as they all thought the same way, no he would have them all practice different things, mostly elemental manipulation and techniques. Some would be dispatched to continue his research into fuuinjutsu and were now focused on Bijuu and dojutsu. Others would be used to practice his bloodlines that weren't the Mokuton.

Naruto himself would focus on the Mokuton bloodline, spending most of the day moulding earth and water chakra in order to produce a small sapling.

As he continued to practice throughout the day Naruto began to find that combining the two chakras together became easy.

By the end of the day Naruto could make several saplings rise from the ground at the same time, happy with his progress Naruto had all his kage bunshin dispel for the last time and reviewed what he had learnt in the day, practicing the various techniques he now knew.

He could use A-rank techniques for any of his affinities and had advanced far with the Hyoton bloodline, going so far as to form an ice mirror like Haku had, but only the one for now as he would require more practice before forming multiple mirrors at the same time. Furthermore Naruto now had access to four fairly long Uzumaki chakra chains which were much easier to use with his new chakra reserves, he theorised that soon he could have as many as nine chains around him at all times.

Come the end of the next day and Naruto performed his first wood technique.

" _Mokuton: Moku Bunshin_ "

From the ground a wooden clone formed, soon changing its earthy features to resemble Naruto perfectly. This was quite the accomplishment as not only could wood clones transfer memories just like the kage bunshin but they were far more durable and hence they were superior in his eyes as his clones wouldn't have to be so careful in training. He may even use them as a form of taijutsu training.

So Naruto began to form multiple Moku Bunshin, even if it was individually in order to have them practice various skills, including Mokuton techniques as he tested the limits of his new body during his taijutsu practice.

Before he began his training a thought crossed the Genin's mind, Hashirama Senju was not only known for his prowess on battle but also his ability to heal others. With his now perfect chakra control Naruto could also perform Iryō ninjutsu, it was time to practice it by using a Moku Bunshin and using the scrolls he had copied from Natsumi on Tsunade's teachings about medical chakra and its uses.

By the end of the week Naruto could use Chunin level medical techniques, an astounding rate of progress which just showed the innate talent that the Shodaime had for medical jutsu. He was also able to form strong roots which could restrain someone, nothing as powerful as the legendary Jukai Kotan but perhaps enough to beat a high A-rank borderline S-rank shinobi.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

To all ye who are faithful, the action truly begins next week! Lots of fighting and the plot will start to move much faster. I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter, I also hope my explanation about Yin and Yang chakra and how it all fits into bloodlines makes sense. As far as my understanding of it goes, this fits in well with the story.

So until next time, Ja ne!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The day of the Chunin Exam Finals had arrived at last.

It looked as if the whole of Konoha and a fair few civilians from Suna had arrived to watch what were sure to be epic matches, many of Konoha hoping to see the two prodigies, Sasuke Uchiha and Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze in the final bout.

Naruto's attendance had been mandatory of course, even if he had no desire to support his 'sister' who had 'trained so much' for 'such an important occasion'. This family fervour made him sick to his core, on the other hand seeing the skills of Natsumi and the Uchiha would be interesting. There was also the opportunity for him to collect more samples…

The Kiroi Senko stood up from his seat after having finished his conversation with the Kazekage, the crowd fell silent as the legendary SS-class shinobi stood up from his seat and addressed the awed crowd.

"Welcome one and all to the finals of the Chunin Exams! The genin you see before you have already passed two trials and even some preliminary matches in order to reach this stage. Out of hundreds of genin who entered these exams only these eight remain. We will now hold a series of one-vs-one matches in order to find out who is the best shinobi amongst these genin. Let the finals begin!"

As the Yondaime sat down after giving his speech the people roared, delighted that they would only be seeing the best of the best out of genin from across multiple nations.

A brown-haired man with a senbon needle sticking out of his mouth stepped into the centre of the arena, giving instruction to the eight contestants.

"I'm Genma Shiranui and I'll be your proctor for this final stage so listen up!"

All eight straightened themselves up at the sharp command issued to them, but Natsumi still had a question to ask.

"Hey what happened to Gekkou-san?"

"He was injured on a mission recently so don't worry. Now I want all of you to leave except for Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze and Neji Hyuuga."

As the other shinobi left the arena Naruto leaned forward, interested in the match because of the rumours he had heard about Neji's prowess in using the Byakugan, the boy was hailed as a true prodigy.

"Got anything to say Namikaze?"

Natsumi looked down with her long red hair covering her face, until she pointed a finger at Neji with a ferocious look on her face.

"Just that I'm gonna kick your ass for beating Hinata like that!"

Shaking his head the Hyuuga replied "So protective over your friends, an admirable quality but you take it too far Namikaze-sama."

"No I don't dattebane! I just like to protect those precious to me."

"Well then, come at me with everything you have."

Natsumi smirked and began a series of hand seals " _Fuuton: Daitoppa"_

As the over powered blast of wind gushed from Natsumi's mouth Neji simply dodged to one side and then began to close in on the girl who engaged the boy in a taijutsu fight which was worthy of Jounin level shinobi. The high speeds and fearsome impacts made the crowd gasp in awe, along with many of the shinobi who hadn't realised just how powerful the two were.

"Amazing for their age!"

"Natsumi is doing great, just what we'd expect off of the Hokage's daughter."

"Watch young Neji Hanabi and observe what a genius can do."

"Go Neji!"

"Go Natsumi!"

"You did a good job with Natsumi Jiraiya, Kushina, but that Hyuuga sure is good."

"Natsumi will still beat him dattebane!"

" _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ "

A cloud of smoke obscured everything from everyone's view for but a moment until it disappeared and the crowd could now see Neji with his Byakugan activated and fending off the many clones that launched themselves recklessly at him.

This is not to say that Neji was not unscathed, the clones were still powerful after all and managed to land a few hits on him, but nothing substantial enough to take any notice of.

Three golden chains rapidly approached Neji, who had been told about the famous Uzumaki chakra chains and their abilities to restrain and damage nearly anything.

" _Hakkeshou Kaiten_ "

A blue rotating sphere of chakra surrounded Neji, deflecting the chakra chains to the side and allowing Neji to perform a second technique.

Meanwhile the entirety of the Hyuuga clan gasped in shock as Neji used a technique which was only granted to main branch members. Many of the elders turned to glare at Hizashi Hyuuga, their gazes promising retribution for teaching the boy one of _their_ techniques.

Hiashi also turned to look at his brother, "What have you done Hizashi?" He hissed, "Do you realise the damage this will cause the clan and what the elders will do to the side branch? I have a hard enough time controlling them already, this will only undermine my position and prevent me from restricting their reactions and movements."

"B-but I didn't teach Neji anything, sure I offered him my help during the month but he rebuffed me as he has been doing for years and decided to train on his own. I haven't done anything whatsoever to help him." As Hizashi looked as flabbergasted as the rest of the clan at his son's handiwork, the elders' suspicions were alleviated as their Byakugan allowed them to see any lies through observation of blood pressure and heart beats, confirming that he wasn't deceiving them.

"How interesting, then Neji must be a true genius of the clan, one of the greatest Hyuuga in decades, a fine son you have brother." The rare compliment from Hiashi made many other clan members glance at the stoic man in shock, none more so that his daughter Hanabi, who received only an occasional rare piece of praise from her father herself. She decided to pay even more to the fight going on below.

Neji was taking up a stance which caused even more shock to flow through the Hyuuga clan as he began to use another main branch technique.

"He can't be-"

"You are within my field of divination. _Hakke Rokujūyon Shō"_

" _Two palms, four palms, eigh-"_

Just as Neji was half way through using eight palms, Natsumi vanished in another poof of smoke.

'Another Kage Bunshin, but how?!'

"I poured extra in that one Neji, now take this _Rasengan_!"

Neji had no time to block the attack from Natsumi who had risen from the ground, as the blue ball impacted with the boy, Natsumi limited the chakra inside the ball to only injure and knock out Neji as opposed to killing him.

"So you have taught your daughter one of your jutsu Yondaime, how interesting that she can perform it at such a young age."

"Heh, Natsumi's pretty good and I have every confidence that we'll see her in the final match."

"I look forward to seeing her fight my son, Gaara."

"Hm, I wouldn't dismiss Sasuke just yet as he's gotten quite strong over the past month from what I've heard."

Back down in the arena, the dust covering Neji dissipated, showing the boy was still conscious, but only just.

"I-I will continue to g-get str-stronger N-Namikaze-sama," Neji breaks down into a fit of coughing before starting up again "and I sh-shall demand a r-rematch. I wi-will prove the s-superiority of our br-branch to the m-main branch," Neji fell unconscious at last and was taken away by the medics.

"Neji Hyuuga is no longer able to fight, Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze is the winner of the first match!"

The only people who remained silent in the cheering were the Hyuuga clan, but Hiashi, their clan head still had a small smile on his face.

"I hadn't realised he was so strong Hizashi, your son is truly impressive."

Hizashi gave a small chuckle at his brother's remark and the incredulous expressions of the other members who had expected the clan head to be angry at this defeat, "You must remember he is your nephew Hiashi-sama, but I will agree that Neji has grown strong, he figured out the Kaiten and Eight Trigrams all by himself."

The eyebrows of those nearby who hadn't already figured this out from the fight below rose into their hairline at that statement which just proved how much of a genius Neji was.

"It seems that Neji has the strongest Byakugan of his generation. I hope you paid attention Hanabi and learned some things from your cousin."

"Hai, tou-sama."

As medics took the unconscious form of Neji to heal him, the proctor once more appeared in the stadium and announced the next match, "Can Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara no Sabaku please come down for the second match of the first round."

As Gaara appeared in a sand shunshin, Sasuke appeared in a shunshin that barely disturbed the ground where he landed.

"Shisui has been giving his cousin lessons then."

"Why do you say that and who's Shisui Kakashi-sensei?" Was the innocent question put forth by Sakura, the third member of Team 7.

"I am talking about Shisui Uchiha, one of the strongest Uchiha in the village, tied with Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother. Shisui is known as 'Shisui of the shunshin' because he can execute a shunshin which is purely non-elemental, doesn't use hand seals and doesn't give any indications that he is there like leaves or smoke, it is a perfect shunshin."

The rookies who had gathered to listen were in awe of this Uchiha when said individual demonstrated the very technique Kakashi had been talking about.

"Ne, ne, don't give away all my secrets like that Kakashi, everyone will want me to teach them and that would just be troublesome."

All the Nara males in the arena sneezed.

"You've been training him hard."

"Meh, he asked for it, but let the match speak for itself."

Silence descended upon the arena, a calm before the mighty storm that was about to erupt, Genma could feel the tension in the air and decided to make his exit once this match began.

"Hajime!"

Sasuke wasted no time in beginning a series of hand seals, starting his first jutsu of the match.

" _Katon: Housenka no jutsu_ "

The small fireballs impacted against a sand shield which rose around Gaara, who stared at Sasuke emotionlessly. He raised his hand, directing a wave of sand to attack the boy who activated his Sharingan and began dodging the spikes of sand careering towards him.

After a few minutes of dodging Sasuke had managed to get all the sand in a flat layer away from Gaara and vanished before the sights of everyone below mid-Jounin rank when he reappeared next to Gaara already launching a kick at the boy's head which connected but did little damage as it just peeled off Gaara's sand armour which reformed after Sasuke was forced to dodge out of the reach of Gaara's sand once more.

'So neither taijutsu nor katon jutsu will work because of how quick that sand of his is, let's try this then.'

" _Raiton: Raikou Kousen no jutsu_ "

A white beam five metres long came straight out of Sasuke's mouth and impacted against Gaara's sand shield which held out for a few moments before crumbling under the element it was weak against. Gaara screamed at the pain which coursed through his body and created a cocoon around himself once he gained his wits about him.

'Is this what pain feels like? What's this wet stuff on my arm, blood?'

"Blood, my blood?! I'll KILL YOU SASUKE UCHIHA, MOTHER WANTS YOUR BLOOD!"

The sand responded even quicker to Gaara's wishes, extending far beyond its previous reach and almost gutting Sasuke when sand spears were launched at him, forcing him to use the full prediction capabilities of his fully evolved Sharingan to avoid the spikes.

" _Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu_ "

Fireballs which took the shape of a dragon's head were formed from the heat that made its way out of Sasuke's mouth and held back the raging sands for but a moment or two, allowing Sasuke to shunshin part way up the walls of the arena and prepare his next attack.

"That stance, Kakashi you didn't teach him-"

Guy was interrupted by his rival, "Itachi asked me to and I considered it prudent for this match considering how strong Gaara's sand is, so yes I taught him my technique."

"What's that Guy-sensei?"

"Kakashi's only original technique, the Chidori. An A-rank assassination jutsu which is said to be able to cut through anything, even lightning it is rumoured."

The mysterious Jounin just smirked as the group turned to look at Sasuke in awe at using such a high ranking jutsu at his age.

"Chidori!"

The sound of chirping birds filled the air as pure raiton chakra formed around Sasuke's hand and he ran down the wall of the arena, dodging any spikes of sand as he finally extended his hand inside Gaara's sand cocoon.

"GYAAAHHH!" The genin who was so unused to pain screamed at the hand which was thrust into his shoulder, goblets of blood dripping from it. Gaara panted and grew angrier with each passing second as this…worm defied his existence, he would prove his existence!

Sasuke's eyes widened as he felt a strange appendage begin to try and crush his hand. Using a second Chidori the Uchiha managed to flee from the insane boy whose cocoon finally dropped.

* * *

As Naruto observed the fascinating match, taking great notice of the blood that fell from wound of the Suna Genin, he saw white feathers fall from the sky as well as a slight disruption to his chakra. He instantly dispelled the genjutsu with a flick of his chakra, the genjutsu never taking hold.

'An invasion? How interesting.'

He looked up as he heard an explosion in the Kage's box, with Minato and his guard, who turned out to be Jiraiya, following the Kazekage onto the roof.

Naruto refocused his attention as he saw Kushina make her way towards Gaara and Tsunade head for the outskirts of the village. So they had known about the invasion it seems.

This was a perfect opportunity for Naruto to collect some samples from the Hyuuga, Uchiha and Gaara. Just as Naruto got up to descend into the arena and collect the blood of Gaara which was still there, five shinobi with a musical note on their headbands surrounded him.

"For some reason Orochimaru-sama finds you interesting and wants you captured, so you're coming with us kid."

"So it is Orochimaru and not the Kazekage leading this invasion, nice to know thank you. Now how on earth do you think you can beat me?"

The Oto shinobi scoffed as the others chuckled "We're Chunins of Otogakure brat and from all reports you're a less than average genin, you have no chance against us."

Naruto just looked down and smiled, "Pathetic, _Sensatsu Suishou._ "

Water needles arose behind each of the Chunin and impaled them with just one escaping whom Naruto killed with a kunai after following the Chunin with Jounin level speed leaving the Oto shinobi no opportunity to block or escape.

"Now that I've dealt with them let's see how- Oh my."

Naruto took in the sight before him as Fugaku Uchiha was protecting his son from the Elite Suna Jounin Baki alongside Genma as said son fought various Oto Jounins with Natsumi nearby also engaging them.

" _Fuuton: Daitoppa"_

" _Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu_ "

The two once again used a collaboration jutsu to decimate their foes and clear the surrounding area. They had to retreat as Baki entered the area and almost killed them with his _Kaze no Yaiba_.

" _Katon: Karyuu Endan_ "

A dragon made of flames drove the experienced Jounin away from the two members of Team 7, Shisui arrived to help defeat Baki as Fugaku nodded towards his fellow Uchiha. In turn Baki received support of his own, with three more Jounin joining his fight.

As Naruto had catalogued the situation he tried to set forth once more and once more was stopped by Oto Chunin.

"Enough of this _Magen: Kyouran no Me kara Kyoufu_ "

As the men all slumped to the floor unconscious after seeing their greatest fears, Naruto had some kage bunshin kill the shinobi as he performed a second genjutsu to change his appearance to look like a nondescript shinobi. A risky manoeuvre but it would allow the Uzumaki to do as he pleased so long as he fought the enemy.

He created several kage bunshin which were sent to follow various battles. One would track Sasuke, another Fugaku, a third Shisui and the fourth would be sent to find Itachi. Other targets were Gaara, Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuuga as he would head for Neji right now to extract some blood from the boy.

Naruto quickly got the samples he needed from the still unconscious Hyuuga who was unprotected as the hospital was under full attack by a squadron of Suna shinobi.

The disguised genin helped out as he exited the hospital, adding an ANBU mask to his setup so that he could fight at an advanced level against these opponents with no one the wiser as to who he was.

Naruto couldn't afford to hurt the other Konoha Jounin by using a large-scale attack so he would have to resort to taijutsu with his kunai.

He partnered up with one Jounin who was having a particularly hard time, taking the full brunt of the Suna nin's attacks as he gauged the other person's weaknesses before exploiting it ruthlessly after she overextended her reach, allowing Naruto to sever her arm from the shoulder and then her throat.

After that the fights only became easier as the two powerful ninja went their separate ways to help two more of their comrades until all of them had defeated or killed their assailants.

"Thank you ANBU-san."

Naruto nodded and left the area, making his way towards the edge of the village where the most fighting was as he saw Tsunade engaging the snake summons of Orochimaru.

" _Doton: Deido Sattou Nami no Jutsu_ "

Naruto moulded earth chakra within his body, expanding his chest as he did so until a mud wave burst out of his mouth, covering many Suna and Oto nin and drowning them not long after. The remaining shinobi who weren't drowned by the technique were instead stuck as the mud rapidly hardened, leaving them as sitting ducks for other Konoha nin to take out.

Naruto fought hordes of ninja, allowing him to utilize many of his high powered jutsu, granting a true test of his new abilities which allowed him to gauge his full strength. This was something he couldn't do otherwise as he had no one except himself to spar with. His abilities were all overlooked simply because he was dressed as an ANBU.

" _Suiton: Suishouha"_ A large body of water materialised from nowhere and formed a mini-tidal wave which drowned or crushed their opponents before remaining in the area to be used for other suiton techniques.

" _Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu"_. The water which was previously created now became a huge cyclone turned on its side that ripped Suna and Oto nin alike and smashed them into various other objects as trees and rocks were also tore from the ground.

" _Kokuangyo no jutsu"_.A group of Oto nin suddenly stood stock still as all their senses were taken away from them and died quickly as kage bunshin approached them and slit their throats open.

After a few more of these wide range techniques which burned and tore apart the invading forces Naruto didn't get another opportunity to use them as he would either hit his comrades or was closed off by multiple shinobi engaging him in taijutsu fights.

Naruto was exhilarated about using his new skills to their highest level, it was a shame he couldn't use his bloodlines but that would bring him a lot more attention. Currently he was probably regarded as a high ranking ANBU Captain but not anything they would have heard of due to the nature of said position, a bloodline user would have been paraded about by now and everyone would know their name.

What he hadn't realised was that his training had pushed him far enough to be classed as an elite A-rank shinobi without his bloodlines.

Kage bunshin regularly vanished to provide Naruto with information about whether they had succeeded in obtaining some form of DNA or had noticed something else, two in particular caught his attention.

One clone had been observing the battle between Minato, Jiraiya and their opponents: the two previous Hokage resurrected and Orochimaru who were all sealed behind a barrier, _Shishienjin_ if he wasn't mistaken.

* * *

"How low have you fallen Orochimaru to resurrect the previous Hokage to attack us, to use our dead predecessors to attack Konoha, it's a perversion of everything we were taught!" Roared Jiraiya as he was forced to look upon the solemn faces of the preciously deceased Hokage.

"What do you know bumbling fool that you are? I never had my genius recognised by our beloved sensei who instead passed on the title of Hokage to this brat here. I will kill you both Jiraiya, Minato and then destroy this village so that my revenge is complete." Orochimaru's expression morphed from hatred to a sick delight as he thought about the destruction of what was once his home.

"I'm sorry young ones but we will not be able to stop ourselves once this battle begins, the Edo Tensei will strip away our emotions and force us to fight for Orochimaru, we will become his puppets essentially." The Nidaime looked at the two sadly as he gave his advice, but the atmosphere was ruined when Hashirama spoke up.

"Baka Tobi-kun! I told you not to create or record this technique, but did you listen, nooooo the great Tobirama had to have a contingency to bring the dead back to life so that they could fight for the village once more."

A tick mark appeared on the Nidaime's head at his brother's outburst, "It was necessary that I do everything I could so that the future generations could protect the village to the best of their ability, that meant creating jutsu which would be used as a last resort."

"Enough talking and reminiscing, you will do as I say and attack the two who stand in front of you!" Orochimaru took two kunai which had a detailed fuuinjutsu inscription on them and inserted it into the heads of the two former Hokage who immediately began to attack the two kage-level shinobi.

"Jiraiya-sensei you go and attack Orochimaru, you know his attack patterns better than I do, I'll hold back the two former Hokage and attempt to seal them away." With that Minato used _Zukokku_ to counter the Nidaime's suiton technique and then launched a Hiraishin kunai at the Shodaime in an attempt to launch a Rasengan at the man.

Meanwhile Jiraiya parried an attack from his former partner before kicking the man towards the barrier as he formed a familiar set of handseals.

" _Kuchiyose no jutsu_ " From the smoke which slowly dissipated around Jiraiya an unusual sight emerged, the man was sitting on the floor which two small but old toads sitting on his shoulders. Jiraiya had summoned the two elder of the toad clan, Ma and Pa, who were now helping their student to enter Sage Mode.

"Why have you called us here Jiraiya-kun? I was just about to make dinner!"

"I'm sorry Pa, Ma, but I'll need your strength to beat Orochimaru in this fight."

"Alright then Jiraiya-boy, we'll lend you our power and finish this fight quickly so I can enjoy some of Ma's cooking!"

"That technique takes too long Jiraiya-baka, I'll have killed you long before entering it," Orochimaru fast approached Jiraiya with the Kusanagi sword in hand after retrieving it from his throat when he was forced to dodge as Minato nearly struck the man with a Rasengan.

The Snake Sannin noticed another Minato still fighting the two Hokage and knew what had happened, "A kage bunshin then? Do you really think that a mere bunshin can defeat me Minato-kun?"

Cold blue eyes gazed back at the slit yellow eyes of his opponent as he spoke, "No, but it is enough to hold you at bay as sensei enters his Sennin Modo."

A flurry of strikes followed as Orochimaru tried to attack Jiraiya whilst the kage bunshin of Minato consistently got in his way and deflected any strikes from the sword of Kusanagi, never actually blocking the sword directly lest it destroy his kunai.

" _Mokuton: Jukai Kotan_ " A mass of trees erupted from the roof and launched themselves towards the real Minato whose eyes widened at the man being able to use this technique even when not at full strength, he had to act quickly as Tobirama was still engaging him in a taijutsu match.

He formed another kage bunshin and the two teleported away from the Shodaime and his Mokuton technique as they both performed a series of handseals in preparation for a deadly combo.

" _Katon: Shinhidora no Jutsu_ "

" _Fuuton: Atsugai_ "

From the original's mouth appeared a dragon with three heads made of fire which dwarfed everyone there. From the clone's mouth a wind blast was launched which hit the fire hydra and created a firestorm monstrosity that decimated the Shodaime's technique and caught the other Senju in the crossfire of the technique, temporarily incinerating his body as the Edo Tensei pieced him back together.

Orochimaru had just dispelled the annoying clone that Minato had created to distract him and tasted victory as he stood over Jiraiya with his Kusanagi in mid-swing when he saw Jiraiya's eyes open and saw the change in them. As he tried to pull back he felt a punch hit him which severely damaged his internal organs and caused Orochimaru a great deal of pain.

"Damn you Jiraiya, _Mandara no Jin!_ " Orochimaru's mouth opened far wider than what it could naturally and from it poured forth an army of snakes with each containing the sword of Kusanagi in their mouths.

As Jiraiya looked on at the technique in disgust he gave a brief glance to the two toads on his shoulders before turning his back on the snakes coming towards him, " _Senpou: Kebari Senbon_ "

From Jiraiya's long white hair an endless rain of senbon was launched which struck the approaching snakes and pushed them back, preventing them from reaching Jiraiya and forcing Orochimaru to stop his current jutsu and respond to the attack.

" _Fuuton: Daitoppa_ " As the wind attack which Orochimaru had empowered by pushing a boatload of chakra into it deflected the hair senbon, a contest of ninjutsu began between the two shinobi, Orochimaru having far more techniques but Jiraiya was able to put more strength into his own while in sage mode.

" _Fuuinjutsu: Konshin Betsuri no Jutsu_ " Minato placed his hand on the floor, causing lines of script to spread across the battlefield, a majority of them concentrated on the forms of the two Kage. He had used a variation of the soul separation jutsu which would lock away the two Hokage until he found a method of returning their souls back to the realm of the dead. He turned around after seeing the two great men disappear into two different sealing tags his clone had created when Orochimaru screamed in rage at seeing the two Hokage get sealed away.

"Damn you Minato, I'll kill you for this!"

"You shouldn't have let your guard down Orochimaru, Ma, Pa, let's end this!"

"Alright then Jiraiya-boy. Together now Ma."

" _Katon: Dai Endan_!"

A river of oil was set on fire and enhanced by a wind jutsu hit Orochimaru and changed his rage into agony as he was burned alive. He spat out another body from his mouth and retreated from his former teammate and his summons.

The snake had ordered the barrier to be dropped as he made his escape. However the four shinobi who had been holding up the barrier were killed a mere instant after they had released the barrier through prolific use of the Hiraishin.

"You won't be escaping this time Orochimaru."

He glared at his blonde-haired opponent and spat out his last words at the man, "On the contrary it only forces me to use my most loyal weapon. Kimimaro hold them off so that I can escape."

A white-haired boy with two red dots on his forehead appeared in front of his escaping master and activated his curse mark level two, transforming his body into that which looked like a miniature dinosaur.

Bones sprouted from his back as the boy engaged in a kenjutsu fight with the two powerful shinobi, telling all who were observing/engaging in the fight exactly who the boy was, the last of the Kaguya clan.

Yet again the battle was short lived as the two kage level opponents brought their full power to bear on the clearly outmatched boy. The combination of Jiraiya's sage mode and Minato's pure speed quickly made the boy realise that he was completely outmatched.

In order to save his master Kimimaro used one final jutsu to hold the two at bay, he said " _Sawarabi no Mai_ " and a sea of bones emerged to attack the two who had to flee the strong technique for a few minutes until the body of the ill Oto nin gave out and he died.

* * *

Naruto had salivated at the prospect of getting a Kaguya's blood until he saw Minato and Jiraiya seal away his body and the bones so that no one could have access to such a powerful bloodline. In addition it had the added benefit of preventing Orochimaru from using the _Edo Tensei_ on the boy, although the man likely had samples of all his subordinates at one of his various bases.

Annoyed as he was, the second clone was the reason why Naruto was heading back to the arena, it seemed that Kushina had been sufficiently distracted by other shinobi to allow Gaara to do a complete transformation into the Ichibi. He intended to capitalise on the situation and draw some chakra from the beast before Kushina restrained and sealed it.

"WOOHOO! I'm free at last baby, time to cause some destruction _Fuuton: Renkuudan"_.

"Damn, I'm not gonna let you hurt so many demon _Kuchiyose: Sanjū Rashōmon_ , a bit of overkill never harmed anyone dattebane!"

As the wind bullet was easily stopped by one of the gates, three were completely unnecessary. Noticing this, the Ichibi focused his attention on the mortal below, "Hey stop putting a cramp in my style tomato!"

Silence once again descended on the field as many Konoha shinobi backed away from the woman whose hair waved about in nine long strands.

Naruto was sweating under the knowledge that Kushina was about to use the full force of her Uzumaki chakra chains after that particular insult. He quickly placed a seal and pulled as much chakra as he could from the Bijuu whose sheer bulk kept him hidden from everyone else.

As the Bijuu turned to engage the gnat which was draining his chakra he heard the red head scream "Tomato, TOMATO! I'll give you tomato Ichibi-baka, take this!"

Nine very large chakra chains emerged from Kushina's back and restrained the Ichibi who was unable to seep through them like he could normally with his sand. The Bijuu was forced into submission on the ground as the enraged Uzumaki approached the beast fearlessly and casually.

"So you fell asleep little boy. Well bed time is OVER!"

She pummelled poor Gaara with her fists, not only waking him up but also beating him until he was black and blue.

"Noooo, I only just got out damn it!" Howled the Ichibi as he was pulled back into his seal because Gaara woke up.

After seeing their trump card beaten so easily, any remaining shinobi laid down their arms as ANBU black ops moved in to restrain them.

With this Naruto left the scene and did away with his disguise before his 'fellow ANBU' realised that he wasn't one of them at all. Instead he made his way to a certain section just outside of the arena where Shisui and Fugaku Uchiha had finished their fight with Baki, who had constant reinforcements throughout his fight in an attempt to fend off the two Uchiha.

It turns out that the prodigal Uchiha had in fact been hit with a wind technique of Baki's. It had barely scratched the boy, leaving but a drop or two of blood on the ground, yet it was more than enough for Naruto who collected the sample without realising that Shisui was watching him from afar, curious at what the Yondaime's son was doing and narrowing his eyes at what he saw.

'Why would he… Best let Yondaime-sama know, maybe he has an idea on what the boy is doing.'

With that Naruto began to help with the clean-up operation, of which there was very little to do as it turns out Itachi Uchiha (who his clones had never found) was leading the defence inside the village and had done an admirable job seeing as how there were very few casualties.

Meanwhile Tsunade was able to keep her injured to an all-time low through the use of Katsuyu more than anything else as the giant boss slug split herself into many pieces and healed individual shinobi.

The arena had even fewer casualties due to the large amount of high ranking ninja in the area, including Kakashi, Gai and Asuma who had all been there for their students. Rumours were circulating about how many Sasuke and Natsumi had taken down, with some embellishment as to their accomplishments but they were nevertheless given praise for them.

* * *

For the next few days Naruto didn't do anything except help out with various odd jobs which would keep him busy for the whole day as all Chunins and above were being sent on higher ranked missions to present a strong front to Kumo and Iwa. As a result any rebuilding was left to the remaining lower ranked Chunin and all Genins so Naruto had to do his part, leaving little time to do anything else.

After a week of helping to rebuild Konoha/do menial chores for the lazy civilians Naruto could at last begin to review whose DNA he had collected during the invasion and experiment with said samples.

He was very pleased with what he found. He had been able to collect DNA from many Uchiha and Hyuuga, including the likes of Fugaku, Shisui and Sasuke from the Uchiha and Hiashi, Hizashi, Neji and Hinata from the Hyuuga.

Naruto made plans to experiment with the DNA of these clans soon but first decided to look at what he had gained from Gaara as he was fascinated by his Bijuu's power as well as the boy's own bloodline, hence why he had also obtained Gaara's own blood from when Sasuke had hit him with his Chidori.

Over the next few weeks Naruto discovered that the Ichibi had enhanced the natural bloodline of the Sabaku family to go from manipulating a metal like iron or gold into being able to manipulate sand. With the large chakra reserves of the Bijuu it meant that Gaara was nigh unstoppable in an area filled with sand.

Naruto had seen the advantages of placing a storage seal on himself which would be filled of sand for him to use as he pleased and therefore he used Gaara's blood to grant himself a new bloodline, Sunaton.

However Naruto was currently experimenting with combining both the Kyuubi's and Ichibi's chakras together, interested in the effects of having two Bijuu's chakra combine.

He still had plenty of chakra left over from the Kyuubi when he had taken the large amount from Natsumi so he had plenty of Bijuu chakra to use as he pleased.

Naruto could be found in Training Ground 23 once more having drawn a complex series of seals which would force the two scrolls containing the Bijuu's chakra into a small confined third area where Naruto would be able to observe what happens as further seals inside that third area would make the two chakras mix and bind together.

"Kai"

After releasing the two chakras from within their respective scrolls Naruto waited as the sealing array did the rest and forced the red chakra of the Kyuubi and the golden yellow of the Ichibi into one space.

Once there the chakras at first bound themselves naturally to each other, as if they were drawn to each other, desiring to be one. However after a few seconds of the two chakras mixing together they destabilised and the whole array blew up. Luckily Naruto had created both a chakra masking seal and a barrier to protect himself.

Naruto was intrigued by what he had just observed, certainly the chakras had combined very quickly, too quickly even and therefore it lent credence to the idea his ancestors had made, the Bijuu were indeed one long ago and their chakras were still naturally inclined to bond together in order to become one again. How they had separated he hadn't the foggiest idea but Naruto now had a new goal, one that had formed over a month ago when he had looked at the scrolls from his predecessors after becoming a level 8 fuuinjutsu master.

He would find the Jinchuuriki and collect samples of the chakra of their hosts using fuuinjutsu and would combine them together to once more form the entity that had been the original Bijuu. It may be an incomplete being but Naruto wasn't too bothered about that for now.

With this experiment complete Naruto made sure to securely seal the half a tail's chakra and full tail's worth of chakra he had remaining from the Ichibi and Kyuubi respectively. Holding them until the time was right.

For now he would begin his experiments with dojutsu, specifically the famous Sharingan seeing as he had the most notes for this particular eye as his clan had desired to unlock its secrets for a long time.

* * *

 **Three days after the Oto-Suna Invasion had been repelled…**

In the Hokage's Office Minato was in a constant state of sorting out paperwork and sending various shinobi on missions. Ever since the invasion had finished Minato had been piled with various requests relating to property damage, compensation for damages received and one even had the audacity to cite damage to their dog to try and draw out payment from him! He was inundated with mission reports and he had to designate out various missions to his shinobi.

He had little time to have meetings and had been putting off a variety of meetings (barring council meetings) in order to engage in his work. Most of the requests had disappeared over time but one request kept asking for a private meeting between himself and Shisui. It intrigued Minato that one of Konoha's Elite was so desperate for a meeting, so he decided to grant the boy a small meeting when he would normally give himself a break from his work.

"Rat find and escort Shisui Uchiha here."

A flicker of movement was the only indication that his order was being followed, a few minutes later and Shisui entered Minato's office, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Permission to speak privately Hokage-sama."

A single eyebrow rose as Minato saw how serious Shisui was with this meeting, "Clear the room."

As four shadows flickered Minato placed a single hand on the table in front of him from which spread many black lines of scripts which activated a variety of seals to ensure privacy in the office.

"You've taken a lot of effort to get this meeting Shisui-san, especially during such a busy and crucial time, what is it that you want?"

"It isn't really something that I want, just something weird and disturbing I have to report about the invasion. Although I'm reluctant to accuse family of anything, I want to protect the village more."

The mention of family immediately had alarm bells ringing in Minato's ears, "What is it Shisui?"

"Well just after the invasion had finished I spotted Naruto-kun approaching the area where Fugaku-sama and I had fought Baki and he took some samples of my blood where Baki had just caught me with one of his wind jutsu."

Minato's eyes widened as he recalled a similar situation happening about half a year ago with Kakashi when Naruto had taken the blood of Zabuza and Haku. But taking the blood of an enemy was one thing, taking the blood of an ally and an Uchiha no less was something far different. Naruto just went from a nagging thought to a priority in his mind.

"Thanks for telling me Shisui, whatever Naruto is doing has obviously progressed if he is now willing to risk the wrath of the Uchiha by taking the blood of one of their best."

Shisui gains a slight blush from the compliment until he registers what has just been said, "Advanced, so he has done this before Hokage-sama?"

Minato nodded and explained the situation to Shisui, who responded by saying, "I'll keep a close eye on Naruto whenever I'm not on missions Hokage-sama. If you get Kakashi-taichou and a few others in on the investigation then I'm sure we could keep relatively good track of him as we rebuild the village."

Minato looked up at the young Uchiha and gave a small smile to him, "You wouldn't make a bad Hokage Shisui-kun."

Shisui laughed at the compliment before replying, "I'd never get any of the paperwork done Hokage-sama, I hate the stuff."

"Don't we all," grumbled Minato, "I'll do as you suggested Shisui but in the meantime you should get some rest. Dismissed."

A small bow with "Hai, Hokage-sama," ended the short meeting as Minato's secretary came in bearing another armload of papers. The Yondaime began to cry as he saw her assistants carry more armloads into his office.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

Apologies for the slight delay all, I'll make sure to upload on time next week.

So this is my first major battle scene ever and quite a few went on all at once, so as a first timer I found this semi-difficult to write. I hope I did well with the fighting, Naruto's deception should be realistic, particularly as no one is looking for a disguised ANBU helping them out.

Regarding the Kage-level battle, I made it short as I don't want to reveal too many powerful techniques just yet. As for why Jiraiya didn't enter Sage Mode earlier, well Orochimaru would have cetainly detected the copious amounts of chakra that used, as well as the presence of a summon, so to stay as Minato's 'guard' he did nothing.

Finally here is a list and description of those jutsu which I believe aren't canon based:

Raikou Kousen no Jutsu - Lightning Beam Technique - The technique produces a beam of lightning from one's hand, it can be made continuous if the user wishes to, although this results in a far higher chakra cost. The target hit by the jutsu will potentially be shocked by the attack. Normally considered a C-rank jutsu.

Magen: Kyouran no Me kara Kyoufu - Demonic Illusion: Fear Through the Eyes of Madness - This jutsu forces an opponent to not only face their fears, but to succumb to them. The victim believes themselves confronted by whatever person or thing they fear most in life. Irregardless of any efforts they make to attack the illusion, their fear remains immune and imposing. For every attempt to defeat this manifestation of fear, the victim only fails and is instead paid back for their efforts tenfold. Stabbing their illusionary opponent in the chest with a kunai would only result in the victim being impaled, for example. An A-rank genjutsu.

Doton: Deido Sattou Nami no Jutsu - Earth Release: Mud Rush Wave - A technique where the opens up their mouth and releases a rushing wave of mud from their mouth. This mass of mud can push over many individuals, drowning them within it. After the jutsu is used, the mud hardens to trap anything within it. A-rank.

Katon: Shinhidora no Jutsu - Fire Release: True Hydra Technique - This technique causes the user to exhale a large amount of fire from their mouth, which forms into a fire dragon with three heads. S-rank.

Fuuinjutsu: Konshin Betsuri - Sealing technique: Soul–Body Separation - The user creates a seal which affects a certain area around it removing the soul of the opponents from their bodies. The souls are then sealed within the tag. If someone destroys the tag, the souls will be released. S-rank.

What will Minato do about Naruto's collection of blood? Find out next week, so until then, Ja ne!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The coming weeks were hectic for Konoha and its people. Minato discovered that the Kazekage had been murdered by Orochimaru and so decided not to declare war on the Hidden Sand, instead he had them pay full reparations for all damage caused but otherwise released all their shinobi back into service, including the Sabaku siblings.

All Oto shinobi were interrogated and then killed, they found out very little as all higher ranking shinobi had either been killed or the few that remained ingested a poison which killed them within second. As a result Konoha couldn't really launch a counterattack on Orochimaru because they had no idea as to where he was.

Shikamaru, Shino, Neji, Sasuke and Natsumi were all promoted to Chunin status, giving them much praise amongst the younger shinobi, particularly the other rookies.

As Naruto was heading out one day he heard Kushina calling him, "Naruto wait there."

Curious about why she would ever call him Naruto turned to face her, "What is it?"

"Your sister and Sasuke will be having a fight today to emulate the Chunin Exam Finals, despite how both were already promoted they want to see who is stronger so the rest of the Genins from your year and a few others will be watching. You will come as well."

Naruto resisted the urge to scowl at the command in the woman's voice, he hated being treated like this but had to acquiesce lest she get suspicious, "Hai, kaa-san," the small suffix would please her and let the idiot think she was in command.

"Good, go to the arena, it'll be held there." With that the red head walked away, presumably to meet Natsumi and go over how she would beat 'Sasuke-teme'.

So Naruto made his way through Konoha fairly slowly, knowing that he had to keep up the façade of the weak son who could barely use his chakra.

A half hour later saw Naruto sitting inside the arena, separate from the other rookies, many of whom had looked at him disdainfully as they came in.

After them many other shinobi started filtering in, excited to see how strong the two prodigies had become. The stadium was soon was filled with Uchiha who desired their member to triumph over the Hokage's daughter and prove their own superiority.

Last to arrive were the direct relations of the two combatants, Natsumi came with Kushina and Minato. As Minato and Kushina left for the box where Jiraiya and Tsunade were already seated; Fugaku, Mikoto and Itachi came in with Sasuke.

"Welcome everyone to this match between Sasuke Uchiha and Natsumi Uzumaki-Namikaze! This will be a single fight between the two, proctored by my own sensei, Jiraiya," at this point the white haired Sannin jumped down from where he was sat and landed between Sasuke and Natsumi, his usual jovial expression in place.

"This match is just a fight between two shinobi who desire to see who is the strongest, as such nothing will be won by the victor except bragging rights," laughter arose from the crowd at this knowing that both shinobi would milk it for all it was worth over the other.

"Okay then little gakis here's the rules: fight as though you are actually aiming to kill but don't maim or severely injure each other. Number two if I tell you the fight is over or to stop or whatever you stop otherwise you'll be fighting me next time got it?" Two nods from the rivals showed their understanding, "Good and finally don't actually kill each other and enjoy the fight! Ready? Hajime!"

With that both of them leapt back throwing shuriken at each other, Sasuke flew into his first set of hand seals.

"Prepared to lose Namikaze _Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu_ "

"Not on your life teme _Suiton: Suijinheki"_

As fire dragon and water wall collided Sasuke activated his Sharingan to see through the steam which was obscuring his vision and found his opponent just finishing a set of hand seals and moulding a phenomenal amount of chakra.

"Take this _Fuuton: Atsugai_ "

"Shit _Katon: Hidora no jutsu_ "

The massive blast of wind was countered by a small hydra with three heads, each exhaling a stream of fire at his opponent who was forced to stop her technique and retreat to the side, away from the long streams of fire.

Sasuke wouldn't let her get him on the defensive again " _Raiton: Hachidori no Mure no Jutsu_ "

Hummingbirds formed from static electricity in the air and charged at Natsumi, colliding with what turned out to be a kage bunshin.

Natsumi internally cheered as she deceived her opponent and had managed to get behind the Uchiha. Just as she was about to hit him her rival turned, engaging her in a fierce bout of taijutsu.

The crowd was thoroughly impressed by the skills these two were showing, seeing the hidden potential for both to become even stronger in the future. They were clearly fighting at a good Jounin level, lighting a fire in the Chunins who had been surpassed and the Jounins who were feeling threatened as well as the rest of the rookies who could see how far away their former classmates were getting in terms of skill and power.

Natsumi started to feel that something was wrong about this situation, like it wasn't all adding up. Sasuke was always a step ahead, always better, how was he doing it? Then she realised she had felt this before from Kakashi-sensei when he…genjutsu!

"KAI!"

Natsumi was just in time to deflect a sword strike which would have ended the match between the two.

"Damn you Sasuke-teme for using a genjutsu on me!"

"So my _Genjutsu: Sharingan_ failed then, I must become more proficient in utilizing it then."

In her anger Natsumi made use of her chakra chains against Sasuke who had to use the full power of his Sharingan to dodge or deflect the chains using his sword and kunai.

Sasuke was both pleased that he was being challenged so much but at the same time angry at being kept on the defensive so much, his clan was watching this and he couldn't fail.

"Enough _Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu_ "

A torrent of fire erupted from Sasuke's mouth as Natsumi called out " _Uzumaki chakra chains: defensive formation,_ " her chains wrapped her in a cocoon which shielded from most of the fire but wasn't able to hold up to the explosion afterwards as Sasuke switched from exhaling fire to forming a fireball and launching it at his opponent.

As Natsumi got up from the explosion she was panting just as hard as Sasuke who was starting to run low on chakra after using so many powerful techniques.

"Let's end this baka," the Uchiha started a familiar set of hand seals that he had used during his fight against Gaara.

"Fine teme," a spiralling ball formed in Natsumi's hand as she ran towards Sasuke who did the same, both calling out their technique at the same time.

" _CHIDORI/RASENGAN_ "

As the pure elemental technique and pure shape manipulation collided a huge explosion erupted in the epicentre of the attack from which two bodies flew out and crashed against the walls of the arena.

Naruto looked on, grudgingly but nonetheless impressed by the two as Tsunade and Shizune checked them, Jiraiya stopping anyone else from interfering.

Itachi was the first to speak up, "Tsunade-sama how are they?"

"Both have cracked ribs but are otherwise okay, give them a day with me and they'll be as right as rain."

A sigh of relief was heard throughout the stadium at the calm assessment from the legendary medic nin. Jiraiya stepped back into the middle of the arena at this point, attracting everyone's attention.

"Both the gakis are unconscious so I guess I'll have to call it a draw folks!"

As everyone sweat dropped at the man's attitude and name calling Naruto pondered on the abilities of his sister and her rival, he was confident that despite their impressive repertoire he could beat the two, potentially without using a single bloodline technique.

He saw that even though the Uchiha were slightly disappointed with not having a complete win, they looked content at being able to match the Hokage's daughter; it showed that they were still powerful and prominent within the village.

After being healed both Natsumi and Sasuke expressed their disgruntlement at not beating the other and pressed their respective family members to train them harder to beat the baka/teme. Who reprimanded them for getting up so soon and already demanding training before they had even been fully healed by Tsunade, who had a rather sickly sweet smile aimed at the two of them as she promised a nice stay in the hospital.

* * *

It had been two months since the invasion as one could once again found Naruto training in all aspects of the shinobi arts making prolific use of kage bunshin to do so as he concentrated on being able to mould each of the elements he had affinities for and using some collaboration jutsu to make them more powerful.

He had made good headway with his Sharingan research and was confident that he could implant the blood of Sasuke Uchiha to get said dojutsu within the next month or two. The very idea made Naruto giddy internally as he desired to see what made those eyes so special for himself, to actually experience what they did and adapt it into his own fighting style.

Partway through his training Naruto sensed some people approaching the training ground, an unusual occurrence seeing as it had never happened before in the many years he had been training there.

The people who came into view were unexpected, Minato, Kushina, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Shisui emerged from the foliage and he could detect a further four shinobi within the bushes nearby 'ANBU then' he thought, but why would Minato need a guard to see him?

Noticing that Minato was wearing his Hokage outfit, Naruto decided to be formal when addressing the man, another deception so as to appear weak and subordinate to him, "To what do I owe the pleasure Hokage-sama?"

Naruto did not flinch or even blink at the hard gaze which observed him, trying to stare into him and ferret out his secrets. Oh he was worried about their intentions, after all by tracing him to this training ground they must have been spying upon him for quite some time, therefore they knew he wasn't weak anymore, the question was whether they knew why.

"Naruto it has come to my attention that you have been engaging in… unusual activities over the past several months, care to explain?" Despite sounding like a request, Minato was clearly giving out an order, the dark look in his eyes expressing his intentions.

Naruto stiffened at the accusing tone, which activities was the man referring to? He had done so many illegal things he simply didn't know which one the man was talking about, he had to clarify the situation.

"Hokage-sama I don't know what you mean by 'unusual activities', I have merely been training like usual in an attempt to make my body stronger."

The Hokage was now scowling at his 'son', "Don't try and deceive me boy, Kakashi spoke of when you took the ice user's blood as well as Zabuza Momochi's in Nami and Shisui has recently informed me that you collected samples of his own blood after the invasion. I grew very suspicious after hearing these reports and have had multiple shinobi tailing you since and yet they all curiously got diverted one way or another. Experienced Jounin and ANBU deceived by a below average Genin made me even more wary of you so I had Kakashi and Shisui start looking into you and they found you practicing abilities way above you. So what have you done with the blood samples, why have you collected them, who else have you took the blood of? How long have you been hiding your abilities for and why? Answer me now or I will be forced to send you to interrogation!"

Naruto looked down, blonde hair covering his features from view, he started shaking and before anyone could ask what was wrong he threw his head back in laughter at being caught out in his own game.

"So you finally caught on, I had wondered how long I would be able to stay under your radar but I suppose taking the blood of an Elite Uchiha was going too far eh? To be honest you caught me earlier than I would have liked but I can still fit this into my plans fairly nicely.

Jiraiya spoke up "What have you done Naruto? Where is the DNA of these three people?"

The boy raised his eyebrows "Three? You think I only have DNA from three people, oh I have done a lot more than that but it doesn't matter to you simpletons, I will tell you nothing; instead I'll take my leave I think."

He leapt back from his position as a golden chain tried to restrain him and his chakra, his 'mother' spoke up, "You're not going anywhere Naruto until you have answered our questions. Don't try to resist, you can't beat so many S-rank shinobi at once."

A dark look that none of the people there had seen before entered the boy's eyes, a look that spoke of darkness, confidence and hatred, "We'll see about that fake Uzumaki." A confused look marred Kushina's face at being called a fake and wondered why the words resonated with her and made klaxons ring inside her head, she dismissed the thought for now and focused on detaining her son.

With that Naruto backhanded the ANBU who had just attempted to slice the Achilles tendon of the boy to incapacitate him. What surprised everyone there was the strength behind the attack which caused the nose to crack and some teeth to fall out of the now bloodied ANBU's mouth.

What alarmed them even more was when the ANBU didn't get back up, despite the powerful strike they should still be able to move. That was when they all spotted the black fuuinjutsu lines which were now showing up on the ANBU's face, lines which indicated their chakra was bound and forcing them to stay unconscious.

"So you're a fuuinjutsu master then, on par with Mito-obaasan. Don't allow him to touch you, he could apply a fuuin on you at any moment with a single touch of his finger!" Kushina warned everyone there of the dangers of a master of Naruto's level.

The next thing they saw was Naruto engaging Kakashi with a fist aimed at his sternum, the Elite Jounin only just managed to deflect the fist, wincing at the strength as he did so.

"He's strong sensei, too strong, it's like fighting Tsunade."

Eyebrows raised at this but Minato sped towards the son he cared little for, a Rasengan charging in his hand when the boy he was about to launch said technique into appeared back in the middle of the field with five chakra chains weaving themselves between Kushina's five which had attempted to restrain their son the moment he appeared.

"Hiraishin…"

"It was fairly easy to decipher in the end, about the only useful thing I got from you _father_ , well except for your blood of course. What's it like fighting your own technique _mother_ , I got this from your blood."

As the majority there halted in their footsteps to digest what Naruto had said, the shinobi there so shocked they didn't bother to press the attack baring Jiraiya who was used to such insanity through knowing Orochimaru and having been in numerous bases of his former teammate. Instead he had continued with his hand seals.

" _Doton: Yomi Numa_ "

Naruto jumped up straight away and faced Shisui Uchiha who had already finished some hand seals,

" _Fuuton: Shinkuuha_ "

As waves of super sharp wind rapidly approached Naruto he rapidly produced a scroll from seemingly nowhere and opened it out, allowing it to absorb the fuuton jutsu much to the shock of all present.

Naruto then whipped out a kunai to clash against the sword of an ANBU with the Tora mask on, his speed was unable to overwhelm his skilled opponent, leaving him open to a rather powerful kick from Minato which sent Naruto into the ground and the awaiting Kushina who was also ready with a blade of her own.

As Naruto rolled onto his feet he unsealed his own blade from a scroll he kept on him at all times. The treacherous boy then engaged the powerful kenjutsu user in a short fight of swords, but Naruto wasn't an experienced kenjutsu user and accumulated a variety of cuts on his legs and torso in their short bout before he heard a loud chirping behind him.

" _Raikiri!_ " Kakashi thrust his hand into the chest of Naruto, who dissolved into mud. He had used a _Kawarimi_ with an _Iwa Bunshin_ he had prepared the moment he felt the chakra signatures approaching his training ground.

The real Naruto emerged on the other side of the clearing away from the group attempting to restrain him, "You're starting to become lethal eh? That would put me out for quite some time you know. I suppose I should respond in kind then _Doton: Chikyū-jō no jigoku."_

Naruto was now flashing through a long set of hand seals at an incredible speed, Jiraiya had seen these hand seals before in the Second Shinobi War.

"Damn _Kuchiyose no jutsu_ , everyone get on 'Bunta!"

As all those on the ground began leaping to get on top of the boss toad, said toad was rather surprised when hundreds of earth spears were rising several feet from the ground which then turned into an enormous swamp that he was beginning to sink into.

"Darn it what have you gotten me into this time Jiraiya!"

It was Minato who replied, saving his sensei's neck in the process, "Sorry Gamabunta-sama but my son is causing some trouble, could you help us?"

"Oh hey Minato-gaki sure thing. Light me up!"

As Jiraiya sweat dropped at Gamabunta's abrupt change in attitude when addressing Minato, the Yondaime started some hand seals as the boss toad started to pour oil from his mouth.

" _Katon: Endan_ "

" _Katon: Gamayu Endan_ " intoned the massive summon as his oil caught fire and streamed towards Naruto until Shisui added a final mix to the already overwhelming technique.

" _Fuuton: Daitoppa_ "

The formerly large amount of flames now tripled their size and intensity making everyone flinch at the raw heat which seared them even from behind.

Naruto knew that a simple doton technique would no longer hold that back and was forced to use something he hadn't yet wanted to reveal.

" _Mokuton: Jukai Heki_ "

A sea of trees emerged from the ground to intercept the powerful jutsu and successfully held it at bay as the people there stood in silence as someone used the legendary Mokuton.

"Naruto you…you defiled the grave of the Shodaime, have you no respect for the dead?"

"Not when they serve my plans for the future, now despair!"

"That chakra, Yondaime-sama, prepare yourself! _Mokuton: Jukai Kotan._ " This came from a third ANBU member who had formerly been a part of ROOT and was one of Minato's most trusted agents, Tenzo.

" _Mokuton: Jukai Kotan_ "

The two sets of jutsu collided, Tenzo's technique was soon overtaken by the significantly larger trees of Naruto. However his experience with the jutsu allowed him to delay Naruto's technique long enough for Gamabunta to leap back from the approaching mass of angry looking trees.

"It's time to see if this new technique works then," as Minato said this and started making a Rasengan, Kushina's eyes widened in fear,

"No Minato, last time you used that you almost tore your own arm off!"

"So I'll have a kage bunshin do it for me, _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_ ". A single clone appeared next to Minato as the two formed an unusual Rasengan which started to get blades like a shuriken.

"I wanted to name this technique _Fuuton: Fuuryoku Hatsuden Bureedo no Ninbasu Geiru Rasenshuriken_ but then I realised the name sounded rubbish and was way too long so I renamed it to _Fuuton: Rasenshuriken_ "

As the kage bunshin launched the attack at the branches which had nearly caught up to them it popped instantly due to the damage caused by the technique which exploded the moment it made contact with the Mokuton jutsu, engulfing the whole area which forced everyone to shut their eyes.

A few moments later and everyone looked in shock at what Minato had wrought, the training ground was devastated. The earth was completely upturned, no trees remained in a several kilometre radius and in the midst of it all they could see Naruto who was rapidly panting.

They were confused as to how he hadn't been killed by the technique, instead he had blood dripping down his form from multiple lacerations across his arms, legs and chest. It didn't take long for Minato to point out the remains of some powerful barrier seals fading away and his chakra chains were gradually being reabsorbed back into him. All of them deduced that his fuuinjutsu and his chakra chains were just enough to stop Minato's Rasenshuriken from killing him.

Naruto was once more forced on the defensive as Minato appeared next to him in a flash of yellow, another Rasengan already in hand, ensuring that Naruto to moved backwards to where Jiraiya and Shisui were both waiting for him to move in order to use a powerful fuuton/katon collaboration, producing a swirling tornado of fire.

To avoid this Naruto used a _Kawarimi,_ yet even this outcome had been predicted and so Kakashi was waiting with a raiton enhanced kunai in hand to attack Naruto, who replied in turn with a kunai of his own. He was soon rapidly pushed back by Kushina who arrived with both her katana and all nine of her chakra chains which he was unable to tie down with his own, having only five and as such four chains got past his own five and wrapped around his arms and legs, restraining him.

Shisui shunshined right in front of Naruto and cast one of his strongest Sharingan enhanced genjutsu on him. This gave Minato and Jiraiya enough time to create a strong chakra supressing seal, which they applied to Naruto's forehead, after which he collapsed onto the floor, beaten.

"Heh, so you win, well what are you gonna do now?"

Minato glared hard into the eyes of the boy who he was just realising had stolen the DNA of many and he may be forced to execute if he couldn't let him off with incarceration.

"You will tell me when you started taking the DNA of others and exactly what you have done with the DNA. You will tell me how you got the bloodlines of others in your body, why have you done so and when you started. You will tell me all of your plans for the future and how you were going to implement them unless you want me to send you off to Ibiki Morino."

Naruto let out a small chuckle, "Now you seem to be under the impression that torture will actually force information from me, well I hate to inform you but it will do absolutely nothing."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the son of his sensei, at how arrogant and stupid the boy was being, he hated the superiority in his tone, "You don't seem to understand the situation you find yourself in, Ibiki's the best interrogator in the shinobi world and you won't be able to resist his methods. Even if you somehow do miraculously then we'll have Yamanakas waiting for you afterwards to rip that mind of yours open."

"Ooooo nasty threat but the Yamanakas will find nothing just like the torture expert. They'll get nothing from me, just ask the ANBU over there."

Naruto was pointing at Tenzo who had been fed a chakra pill by one of the other ANBU after collapsing from chakra exhaustion because he put everything he had into fighting Naruto's more powerful use of Mokuton.

Minato immediately turned to question his ANBU, "Tenzo what does Naruto mean by not being able to gather any intelligence from him?"

The man shakily stood up with help of his fellow ANBU and narrowed his eyes at the blonde-haired boy who looked as if he had not a care in the world as his eyes widened in realisation.

"H-he is not N-Naruto Hokage-sama, he is a Moku bunshin."

They all turned to face Naruto as he slowly started turning brown and began seeping into the ground, speaking some final words.

"Let's see if you can catch me then Yondaime. Don't bother trying to find traces of what I have done, I've removed all traces of everything I did from here, in fact you should hear an explosion from an abandoned house in the red light district quite soon."

As an explosion sounded off in the distance Kushina confronted the boy she had given birth to "Why have you done this Naruto, what is your end goal?"

"Why? Well at first to prove that I was better than Natsumi but that changed after I found a certain something you had abandoned in the fuuinjutsu section of the library at 'home'. Can't remember, well then I'll give you some clues before I disappear, Mito would have certainly talked about us to you, we were separate from the rest of Uzushio and are the reason for its destruction."

As Kushina puzzled on these clues the wood clone's eyes glazed over for a moment before smiling at everyone standing before him.

"A final message before I go. I'd check on Natsumi and Sasuke if I were you, it looks as if they have just had an encounter with the Akatsuki, ja ne."

With that the bunshin was completely absorbed back into the ground as Minato looked stunned for a moment before flashing off to the Hiraishin seal he had on Natsumi as the others rushed off to catch up with him, Kushina informing them of his whereabouts.

* * *

The group caught up with Minato when they found him talking to Tsunade who was healing both Natsumi and Sasuke as Shizune and Sakura healed Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuuhi and Maito Gai who all looked extremely drained.

Standing next to the two unconscious Chunin was Itachi Uchiha who had blood streaming from both his eyes, an indication of overuse of his Sharingan.

Jiraiya was shocked to find out from Tsunade that an old friend of their former team, Hiruko and a Kiri missing nin called Kisame Hoshigaki, had attacked Sasuke and Natsumi. They had quickly beaten the two, making them fall unconscious as the three Jounin engaged the two nukenin after being alerted of a fight happening nearby.

As the three fought the two powerful missing nin they were crushed through a combination of Kisame's chakra intensive water jutsu and the multiple kekkei genkai that Hiruko somehow used to devastating effect when Itachi had intervened using his Tsukuyomi to knock the bloodline wielder out and forced Kisame to take the man as he used Amaterasu against the water user who could not combat the black flames.

Hearing this Shisui made his way to his fellow Uchiha and forced the man to get his eyes checked; knowing that those techniques came from the Mangekyou Sharingan and each usage would cause his best friend's eyes to deteriorate until he was blind.

"This is bad, first Naruto and now this. Do you think he'll join up with Akatsuki Minato?"

Just as the blonde-haired man was going to answer Kushina interrupted "No he won't, if I'm right Naruto's 'clues' were referring to a subsect of Uzushio who called themselves the 'True Uzumaki.'"

Everyone there looked at the woman with confused expressions of their faces, never having heard of them before "Who were they Kushina-chan, you've never spoken of a subsect before."

The red head looked down in shame, having hoped to never reveal this particular secret of her people, "Just as Konoha has many dark secrets the True Uzumaki were Uzushio's. They were a people who did anything to find answers to questions they had, advancing their use of fuuinjutsu during their research, all in order to discover the great mysteries of the world. The advancements they made were the only reason they were tolerated at all because it resulted in seals like the Shiki Fuuin being born from their madness.

"They formed a separate clan from the rest of us so to speak and committed horrible atrocities in the name of fuuinjutsu and knowledge, delving into things they never should have. In the end it was leaked that they had been experimenting on bloodlines from across the Elemental Nations; before the Uzumaki could quell the information Kiri, Kumo and Iwa had arrived to destroy us, specifically the True Uzumaki and prevent them from getting any stronger.

"When I ventured into the remains of my home I collected whatever scrolls I could of techniques, heritage and our fuuinjutsu knowledge. I found a single scroll inside an area which had been delegated to the True Uzumaki to stop their teachings permeating the rest of the village and I attempted to open it on multiple occasions but they had unusual methods of identifying people which stopped me from ever opening the scroll so I simply discarded it amongst the other scrolls Minato and I had collected, never imagining that someone would actually open it."

Tsunade's eyes lit up in recognition after the tale had ended and spoke up when everyone else had fell into a stunned silence at such a solemn tale.

"I remember now, Mito obaa-chan always said to avoid the Uzumaki that dressed in pure white robes, she would always say that they weren't like the other Uzumaki, that they were dangerous and bad. If Mito who had been a true genius in the fuuinjutsu arts called them dangerous then they must present a serious threat, but why talk about Naruto in reference to them?"

A tense silence hung in the air at the question which Minato reluctantly answered "Naruto is one of the True Uzumaki according to Kushina and looks to have been experimenting on bloodlines. When we confronted him about taking the DNA of certain people Naruto fought us and used Mokuton during the fight."

Tsunade's eyes darkened at hearing someone defile her beloved grandfather's grave as the rest of those not in the know gasped or in Itachi's case, widened his eyes to epic proportions.

"I don't care who he is Minato, I'm gonna kill that brat for defiling Ojii-san's grave."

Minato looked down for a moment and as his head came up a blazing fury bore down upon the shinobi he led, "I know, that is why I am labelling Naruto, formerly an Uzumaki-Namikaze as an S-rank nukenin of Konoha."

A gasp rang out amongst those within the clearing as Minato stripped Naruto's heritage from him and labelled Naruto as such a high ranking nukenin who would now have the entire Elemental Nations after him to collect his bounty and obtain his secrets.

In the nearby bushes a kage bunshin smirked before dispelling, letting Naruto know exactly what had transpired.

"For those not in the know, everyone will recover from their injuries and no permanent damage was done. Sasuke and Natsumi have a few fractures but they will be fine, I just want to monitor their health for the rest of the day, I'm not sure what effects Hiruko's bloodlines or Samehada will have on them and I don't want to risk anything." Tsunade reassured the worried relatives, sensei and friends of the injured parties.

Minato rubbed his forehead tiredly, considering everything that had to be done and prioritising things in his head before he spoke up, "We should send the injured back with Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura to the hospital. Meanwhile I need to know everything that you heard about these so called 'True Uzumaki' Kushina-chan so we can compile a potential list of everything he might have done. ANBU I want you to investigate that explosion and completely scour the building and its surrounding environs, leave nothing out of your search, Jiraiya-sensei could you go with them and keep a lookout for any unusual seals or any traps Naruto might have left us?"

Jiraiya gave a serious nod before vanishing with the ANBU who had accompanied them as well as some extras who had come to investigate the high chakra usage in the area. Tsunade had begun to transport the injured over to the hospital, leaving only a stubborn Itachi who refused to go to the hospital until he had heard everything that had happened alongside Kakashi, Shisui, Kushina and Minato as all the ANBU had either been injured by Naruto or were investigating the explosion from earlier.

Kushina heaved a sigh as she spoke again, "If I'm going to be talking about the True Uzumaki then we're going to need Shikaku, Fugaku and Hiashi as what I'm going to speak of concerns the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans and we'll need Shikaku's insight. You'd better treat me to some ramen after this Minato-kun." The red head looked at her husband who started to sweat and then glanced at Shisui, not wanting to strain Itachi any further, the young Uchiha nodded and vanished without a whisper of air to note his departure.

The remaining shinobi retreated to the council chambers located in the Hokage's tower and immediately erected all the seals on the chambers when the three clan heads had been brought there.

"What is this about Hokage-sama, I presume it involves the recent explosion in the red-light district?" This question as from Hiashi whose clan members had been able to use their eyes to see what had happened from the clan compound.

"Hai it has something to do with that." Here Minato launched into a tale as to what had happened with Naruto, starting with what Kakashi had seen in Wave to Shisui's report on the invasion and finally the recent confrontation with Naruto and what had happened to both Natsumi and Sasuke.

"It is good to know my son was able to survive against such opponents until backup arrived and it is gratifying that you were able to force them to retreat Itachi, well done." A nod towards the stoic Uchiha prodigy came from his father and clan head, Itachi responded in kind before Fugaku continued, "However I would like to know what these 'True Uzumaki' have to do with the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans Kushina-san."

Kushina's eyes fell to the table, she couldn't bear to see the expressions of those around her as she revealed the most terrible secret the Uzumaki had, "As I said earlier, the subsect which called themselves the 'True Uzumaki' initiated and conducted many experiments centred around bloodlines. They used the blood of the Hozuki and Yuki clans in Kirigakure, they attempted to gain the blood of the Nidaime and Sandaime Tsuchikages for their Jinton and they took the Shakuton from Suna but were unable to get the blood from any of the Sabaku bloodline.

"For years they experimented with these bloodlines and others as many of their number died in vile experiments, all kept secret from the rest of the village as any attempts to infiltrate their group was futile."

"Why not just eliminate them if they were a threat who didn't obey the rules the rest of your people adhered to?" The insightful question came from a curious Shikaku who had already theorised as to why they hadn't simply wiped them out but he wanted it confirmed.

"There were two reasons why they weren't destroyed I was told, the first is that despite their horrendous experiments a great deal of good and useful techniques were created by the True Uzumaki. Where do you think the ability to seal objects came from? It is no mean feat to seal something into a separate dimension which is bigger than the scroll which contains said dimension, but it has become so commonplace that everyone thinks the seals themselves are simple. Where did the ability to seal the Biju and supress their chakra come from, where did the Shiki Fūjin originate? All this and more was discovered by the True Uzumaki. However their experiments also scared the rest of Uzushio, they guarded their secrets jealously and we didn't know what fuuinjutsu they had developed, as a result we were too scared to confront them and they wouldn't dare to try and fight the rest of the village so an uneasy truce formed between our council and theirs."

"This is all very good and fascinating Kushina-san but what does this have to do with the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans?" A note of frustration could be heard in the normally cold voice of Hiashi as he wanted to know why he was called to this meeting.

"Apologies Hiashi-sama but Shikaku-san needed his question answered. As I was saying they conducted horrific experiments which disfigured and killed many of their own number. But what none of us knew until it was too late and the other villages had begun to find out was that they had been having some successes in transferring bloodlines from others into them, even the deceased were not beyond being exhumed and then used to gain lost bloodlines for their sake. More important however is the final missive Mito-obaasan received from the head of our village and clan before Uzushio was destroyed. The letter stated that the reason why they were being attacked is because it was leaked that their attackers were punishing the True Uzumaki for illegal bloodline experimentation, the thing is no one knew which bloodline they had experimented with and how anyone had found out.

"It was discovered that two of their number were wearing genjutsu when they weren't hidden away in their own complex, when it was released they found out why the genjutsu had been worn."

Kushina steeled herself as she raised her head to look in the eyes of the two clan heads as she spoke her final words, "One had a white eye containing the Byakugan and the other had a red eye with a fully matured Sharingan."

A stunned silence held the room for almost a minute as no one was able to comprehend what Kushina had just said. However the moment they had all fully understood what they had been told, the stony facades of Hiashi and Fugaku, facades which nearly none of them had ever seen past, completely shattered as the two men stood from their chairs, screaming in outrage as they alternated between calling Kushina a liar and demanding Naruto's head at the same time.

This continued for a few moments until Minato had enough of the vitriol being spouted at his wife and levelled a large amount of killing intent at the two men, quietening them down.

"That is enough! Fugaku, Hiashi, remember that it is not Kushina's fault that this happened and she cannot change the past."

Both men felt slight guilt and gave Kushina a small bow of the head as an apology, however neither were satisfied as Hiashi began to speak of their concerns, the rival clans united for the first time in centuries, "We apologise for our outburst but it doesn't solve the problem that Naruto represents, the boy can effectively and may have already stolen our dojutsu. I'm sure Fugaku will agree that our eyes hold grave secrets which we would rather did not venture outside of our respective clans."

Fugaku gave a nod towards Hiashi as he expounded on their concerns, "Indeed the boy could not only have access to both of our dojutsu and unlock their secrets but he could also sell said secrets to any other village. If he were to go to Kumo and grant them all the knowledge he obtains then Naruto could live like a king for the rest of his life as Kumo would pay any price for our dojutsu."

Hiashi's fist clenched at the mention of Kumo, rage present in his eyes as he thought about the cloud finally getting their filthy hands on the Hyuuga's Byakugan. Seeing this, Minato immediately decided to try and placate the two powerful clan heads,

"I am well aware of both of your concerns as any secrets leaked about your bloodlines will also represent a threat to the village itself. Therefore I am going to label Naruto as an S-rank nukenin with both a capture and kill order in the Bingo book. I shall have Hunter-nin looking for him round the clock and I shall devote a few teams of ANBU to try and track him down.

"I shall not allow Naruto to give up any of Konoha's secrets for I have my own grievances with Naruto as he displayed use of both Kushina-chan's chakra chains and Mokuton when we confronted him."

The statement that Naruto had already begun to steal bloodlines worried the two clan heads, yet it also reassured them that their Hokage would do everything in his power to bring Naruto back, despite his status as his son due to the nature of the bloodlines he had already acquired.

The two slowly sat back in their chairs, their usual facades once more back in place, although everyone inside the room saw it for exactly what it was: a mask to hide their tumultuous thoughts and feelings.

"What now sensei?" A thoughtful silence permeated the room after Kakashi had asked the question. Minato sat in silence for a few moments, collecting his thoughts and considering the options available to him before he spoke up.

"Kakashi I want you to go to ANBU Headquarters as well as the Torture and Interrogation and Intelligence divisions to inform them of Naruto's new status, we can't afford for him to take advantage of our shinobi whilst it hasn't spread about his betrayal. Shisui I have to ask you to call an emergency council session, gather the elders and the clan heads, we'll inform the civilian council later. Itachi I want you to go back to the hospital, I know enough about the Mangekyou Sharingan to realise that overuse damages your eyes. Shikaku, your thoughts?"

As the respective shinobi went to their designated areas, Minato and the others remaining looked towards Shikaku, knowing that he had already planned several moves ahead of the rest of them.

"Tch, this is a troublesome situation, I'd suggest sending the Hunter nins and ANBU after Naruto immediately so that the trail doesn't go cold, no less than two squads should even attempt to track him. You might want to consider asking for Danzo's help in this situation Hokage-sama, his network might be able to locate Naruto before we can. I'll wait until the council is convened before saying anything else, it'll be less troublesome to tell everyone once."

After sweat dropping at the Nara's lazy attitude, they prepared for the arrival of the council and the meeting that would follow.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

Naruto has finally defected from Konoha! Next time we'll see where he decides to go now and what he intends to do next.

Here's a list and description of some of the jutsu:

Katon: Hidora no jutsu - Fire Release: Hydra Technique - The user is able to exhale three streams of white-hot fire which look like snakes. With sufficient chakra control, one can control the snakes to some small degree. B-rank.

Raiton: Hachidori no Mure no Jutsu - Lightning Release: Swarm of Hummingbirds Technique - The technique causes various sparks of lightning to appear in the air. Within moments they transform into humming birds, giving off a loud humming sound. The humming birds will then rush the opponent and can spread out to hit multiple targets. C-rank.

Doton: Chikyū-jō no jigoku - Earth Release: Hell on Earth - After a long series of seals, the user bangs their head on the ground. The field around the user then transforms into sharp pointy spears, jutting a meter up from the earth's original position. After a further set of handseals, the sharp spears then transformed into a swamp of mud, similar to Doton: Yomi Numa.

Fuuton: Fuuryoku Hatsuden Bureedo no Ninbasu Geiru Rasenshuriken _-_ Wind Release: Nimbus Gale of Wind Blades Spiralling Shuriken - Minato's original name for the Rasenshuriken.

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter so until next time, Ja ne!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **The Valley of the End**

It had been half an hour since Minato Namikaze had declared Naruto a nukenin and said defector was currently standing at the Valley of the End pondering his next step.

"Well first I'll escape to Tetsu no Kuni, few will think to look there for a nukenin who will only encounter a cold shoulder and suspicion but a good genjutsu should fool most of the samurai there, I just have to stay away from the elites and Mifune."

Naruto occasionally thought out loud when he deemed the area somewhat safe to talk in and it helped to order his thoughts in a chaotic moment like the past hour had been.

"After that I'll buy or build myself a house on the edge of some small village or town using my Mokuton and concentrate on my research and my techniques. After implanting the Sharingan I can start seeking out the various Jinchuuriki and obtain the chakra of their respective Bijuu."

Having created a rough plan Naruto turned towards the northwest where the land of Iron resides and sped towards the border.

A day into Naruto's journey he detected several presences very close behind him. Startled and alarmed by how close they had gotten without him noticing, Naruto made his way into a clearing nearby.

He automatically catalogued his surroundings as he entered the clearing, noticing the river nearby which he could potentially use for suiton jutsu if necessary as well as how easily he could use the Kawarimi. Of course his opponents would have the same advantages as well.

Having waited patiently for a few seconds, Naruto decided to confront his pursuers, "I know you're there, come out now."

Naruto could sense ten presences surrounding him, out of the ten only five revealed themselves to him.

Each was wearing an ANBU outfit, the standard form fitting outfit revealed nothing of the identity of his stalkers. There was no headband to identify the village these individuals came from, although the masks indicated that they were from Konoha, there were no distinguishing animal features on the masks.

The only sign of any identity was a single mark on the mask, a _Ne_ symbol. Naruto became more alarmed by this, he had no information on such an organisation within Konoha, which made them from dangerous.

One of the blank faced individuals stepped forward from the group of five, "Naruto Uzumaki, our leader extends his regards and a request for you to join his organisation."

Blue eyes narrowed at the presumptuous statement, "Who is this leader and what organisation is this?"

The male in question shook his head at Naruto, "Our leader does not wish for us to divulge his name to you. Irregardless this organisation is called Root and we exist within the shadows of Konoha, taking on missions designed to protect the Leaf, whilst getting no credit or acknowledgement from the village. Our leader recognises your talent and abilities, he wishes for you to join us, perhaps even to become the new leader of this organisation. By doing so you might one day become the Hokage, our leader desires for such a strong person who is willing to do everything that can be done to take the lead within the village, to make it great once more."

Naruto's response to the small speech was to laugh, long and hard, for a minute before he calmed himself down.

"What an obvious ploy, your leader does not want me to know his name so I cannot track him down, clearly he is a paranoid man. In addition this leader asks me to join an organisation without any stipulations, says he will one day make me its head and then promises the position of Hokage? Firstly I would never become Hokage in an organisation which hides within the shadows, who would elect someone into a prominent position if they are relatively unknown? Your leader is a puppet master, who wishes to attach a new set of strings to me, in doing so I will become a puppet leader for him, forced to obey his whims as he gets all the benefits from my hard work. He likely wants access to my seals to strengthen himself so that he can personally deal with me should I become too unruly.

"So no, I shall not accept any position within this 'Root' of yours, it truly provides little benefit to me considering my plans for the future."

The atmosphere in the clearing became stony, Naruto was amazed by the ability of these people to exude such a cold presence when he could feel almost no signs of any emotions within their chakra. Normally when one was feeling emotions they would resonate with the chakra of the individual causing turbulence or chakra spikes, yet Naruto could feel almost nothing from these shinobi, he realised that they must have had extensive emotional conditioning.

"It is a shame you shall not join us, our master has said if you refuse his proposal to give you this message, 'Do not think you have gone unnoticed Naruto Uzumaki, I know you not only contain the Mokuton bloodline, but also the Hyōton and Sunaton bloodlines. I know of your plans to obtain the Sharingan in the future, considering you have taken the blood of Shisui and Sasuke Uchiha and I know you have Hyuuga blood as well.

"Wherever you go I shall find you young Uzumaki, for I had dealings with your ancestors in the past, the 'True Uzumaki' and I know of their abilities. Do not assume that plans are not already in place to deal with you in the future. I present another chance for you to join me, I can make you a truly great shinobi, one who will be remembered for generations, one who will be acknowledged by all, who will surpass his family and leave them straggling in the wind. All that is needed is for you to come to me and pledge yourself to my cause, the protection and strengthening of Konoha.'"

Naruto's eyes had widened throughout the speech as he realised that one man had obtained more information on him than anyone else. Someone had kept very good tabs on him and it alarmed Naruto that he didn't know anything about them.

More importantly is how much they had found out about his plans already. Even worse is that this person had met his ancestors before, so he had at least a working knowledge of his sect of the Uzumaki, who knew what else he had found out over the years?

He knew he had to find out more and his best option were the members of this 'Root' who stood before him. But he was wary, the warning about plans having already been made to deal with him could be a bluff, yet it may also be true. Currently Naruto didn't know anything, so he couldn't take any risks, he would have to retreat and set up a network designed to find out more about this shadowy organisation.

Explosions started to erupt around the clearing even as the Naruto in front of the Root ANBU vanished into smoke.

"Retreat!" Called out the figurehead of the ANBU, all of them fleeing from the trap laden area. In the end four of the ten ANBU died in the explosions and their mission was a failure.

Meanwhile Naruto was fleeing from the area, his mind racing as he attempted to figure out who this person was tracking him and how they had found him so quickly into his escape from Konoha.

It soon became obvious that whoever this man was, they must have ties with Orochimaru, as only the snake would have had any inclination that Naruto intended to flee from Konoha. Hence he was being monitored shortly after the second part of the Chunin Exams, a worrying notion indeed.

* * *

It took Naruto a further day before he reached the border of Tetsu no Kuni, where he applied several genjutsu interwoven with each other upon himself and then he enhanced the genjutsu by activating some seals on his body which would prevent any attempts at dispelling the genjutsu placed on himself. On top of this he shrouded the chakra which his genjutsu released, preventing most samurai and shinobi from being able to recognise him. He took so many precautions purposefully in response to the confrontation that occurred yesterday, now more paranoid than ever before.

His new appearance was that of a world travelled middle aged man who wore a straw hat which currently hung on his back as he was wrapped up in some warm fur to stave off the cold.

As he crossed over the border a patrol of samurai quickly encountered him and demanded why he was in the area. Naruto used a pre-prepared story about his desire to see all the sights in the world, taking odds and ends jobs as he travelled in order to make ends meet.

Producing various forged documents (courtesy of his fuuinjutsu and calligraphy skills), Naruto showed the samurai that he had indeed travelled across the world. He appeared to have travelled from the land of Fire to Noodles, to Tea and then through various islands, even going as far as the land of Keys before doubling back on himself and going through the land of Clouds and then Frost, staying in the land of Hot Springs for quite some time before skirting the troubled land of Rice until he arrived here, hoping to go to the land of Snow after spending time amongst the samurai.

After asking a variety of questions about his travels (anyone would be curious about a person who had visited so many foreign lands and the sights they had seen) the samurai gave 'Toshitsugu' a pass which would allow him to travel through their country for the next two weeks. Before that time was up he needed to register himself at a town or the capital to get proper documentation to travel here and work in the land of Iron.

Thanking them for their help, Toshitsugu made his way towards the capital of Tetsu no Kuni at a sedate, civilian pace. After getting out of sight of the samurai Naruto increased his speed exponentially, desiring to get to a particular town southeast of Iron's capital which was located rather close to Rice for his liking. Yet it was a fertile area where he could gain proper documentation (not forged for once) and his story as a traveller seeing the sights of the world but requiring work to feed and fund himself would easily hold up.

A few hours later found Naruto at the small but prosperous town of Senomura where he immediately registered and then made the person who questioned him completely forget he ever existed by placing a seal which made him forget the past hour or so. After he found a small home he could rent out at the outskirts of the town where he would be left in peace away from others and forced the landowner to forget about him, the transaction and even everything to do with the house after placing a seal which his ancestors had derived from the Yamanaka clan on the landowner.

Consequently Naruto made his way to his new home and began layering many seals over the area to disguise the place, force others to avoid it, alert him to intruders and protect the house from them. After placing enough seals to make even an Uzumaki pause, let alone some poor ANBU or Hunter nins or even a Root ANBU, Naruto felt comfortable enough to make the house a home/research base/training ground which he would use for the next few years.

The first thing he did was to set up a training regime for himself, so many events had occurred over recent months that Naruto still hadn't had time to fully adjust and train all of the elemental affinities and bloodlines he had access to. He was likely a low to mid-kage level shinobi at best, the only reason he had held off his parents and the others for so long was because he had constantly surprised them with his abilities, first his strength and speed, then his fuuinjutsu, Hiraishin and the various bloodlines he had acquired.

All in all Naruto needed to seriously increase his training if he wanted to survive the next few years with all the Hunter nin and bounty hunters coming after him.

What was of more concern to Naruto was the likelihood of Akatsuki taking an interest in him once he started going after the chakra of the Biju. He had only just figured out what they wanted by considering the fact that two of their members, Kisame Hoshigaki and Hiruko had both fought Natsumi and Sasuke, two powerful but seemingly inconsequential people.

Sasuke held little of interest other than his eyes, of which there was a whole clan to steal from and Natsumi wasn't of much more interest unless the Akatsuki wanted to kidnap her for a mission or to take the Kyuubi for some reason. Naruto chose option two and thought that the Akatsuki might know something about the Juubi which is why they are trying to collect the Biju. This meant that Naruto was on a timer to try and gather chakra from each of the Biju before the Akatsuki was able to extract them from their respective Jinchuuriki.

The first step to this was finding out what the Akatsuki were doing, seeing as this was all but impossible for someone like Naruto who had no contacts he had instead left a Chishio Bunshin in Konoha that could form Moku Bunshin which would disguise themselves as a family of four and monitor the seals he had left around the village. As well as attempt to investigate this other organisation within Konoha who had been monitoring him for so long, he would take extra precautions when digging around for information on them.

The Chishio Bunshin was an ingenious invention of the True Uzumaki which even they had labelled as a kinjutsu due to its requirements. You had to first give up approximately half the blood in your body and then you were required to pour eighty percent of all the chakra within you inside the sealing arrangement which contained your blood.

The result was a clone which perfectly matched your biological and chakra signature; it had its own chakra replenishing network and could perform all the same techniques as the original. The downsides were that the bunshin could only use up to seventy percent of the original's chakra capacity, it could still be dispelled if damaged enough and it had a maximum life of six months before it would be forcefully dispelled.

Nevertheless the pros outweighed the cons and Naruto now had a family of bunshin living in the village. What made this even more worthwhile is the fact that any bunshin which dispelled in Konoha would transfer their memories not only to the Chishio Bunshin but also to Naruto himself.

With his clones monitoring Konoha Naruto could devote all his time into training himself. He decided to use a similar method as to what he employed in Konoha, his clones could work on his fuuinjutsu, elemental and bloodline training, genjutsu techniques and Iryō ninjutsu while he solely devoted his time to taijutsu training and conditioning his body so it could access more of its newfound power as a result of having the True Senju body.

* * *

A month into this regimen and Naruto was shivering in anticipation as he received the memories of some clones who had made the final calculations needed to adjust the sealing formula so that he could absorb the DNA traits of the Uchiha and grant himself the Sharingan.

Naruto's new sealing room far outstripped the old warehouse he had used before, back then he had to worry about someone discovering his handiwork or detecting the chakra which emanated from the lines of sealing script. With no such restrictions Naruto had placed seals which would draw the ambient nature chakra in the surrounding environment and then filter it into its Yin and Yang components. This provided Naruto was a constant supply of Yin and Yang which he could use as he desired, however the seals could only channel so much nature chakra before they overloaded, so Naruto had to limit the amount of chakra he had the seals extract in any given day.

But all of these thoughts were errant distractions as Naruto made his final preparation for his next bloodline. The sealing arrangements were in perfect order and Naruto once more knelt in the middle of the flowing black lines, the blood of Sasuke contained in a small bowl in his hands.

With a cheery "Bottoms up!" to himself Naruto drank the blood of Sasuke and allowed the process to begin.

He was once more thankful for the pain dampening seals which he had developed to work in conjunction with all the seals as Naruto felt a searing pain radiated throughout his being, concentrated in his eyes.

Naruto fought through the pain and began his part in the process in forcing Yin chakra to make what could be, into reality. However it was far harder than normal, the powerful Yin chakra of the Uchiha did not wish to obey his wishes and appeared to be actively fighting against mixing with his own chakra, or more specifically the Yang component of his chakra.

Naruto screamed as the pain within his body intensified, feeling an increasing desire to claw his eyes from out of his head and was forced to remind himself that he would lose what he sought if he gave into his body's demands. If one were looking at the Uzumaki from the outside, they would be shocked by the blood pouring out from behind closed eyelids.

Naruto fought a long battle in subduing Sasuke's potent Yin chakra to obey his desires and forcing it to combine with his own to grant him the power of the Uchiha.

Unknown to Naruto he had been fighting for a week before he succeeded in acquiring the Uchiha bloodline. But Naruto felt it was worth it when he opened his eyes for the first time since falling unconscious and he could already tell that there was a significant difference in his perception without even using the Sharingan.

Naruto shakily got up from the ground and gradually started to push chakra into his eyes as the scrolls left by his ancestors instructed him to. He felt a slight burning sensation before everything around him became clearer. Naruto noted that he could see blue lines everywhere, which he deduced to be the chakra contained within the fuuin surrounding him.

"This is…simply amazing."

Naruto shook himself from his reverie as took out a kunai as final test to see if he had the Sharingan as he looked at his reflection upon the weapon.

"Sugoi…I've done it!" Staring back at Naruto were two red eyes each containing a single tomoe in them.

The next five months proved to be both invigorating and frustrating for the former Konoha Genin. Since Naruto had gained the Sharingan when he was already a powerful shinobi it meant it was far harder for him to make it progress as he was unlikely to encounter a life-threatening situation and his body was already fast enough to keep track of what his new eyes were telling him, therefore the Sharingan initially did not advance past the first tomoe.

Naruto's solution to this after two months of failure was to create three Chishio Bunshin (created over the course of a week) to fight him in lethal circumstances by using everything they had against him. Because both sides had the same skill sets, the Chishio Bunshin were more than able to make up for what they lacked in power through their numbers and the creation of clones, which Naruto didn't do himself to provide a greater challenge.

The result of the next three months of gruelling beat downs courtesy of his own clones forced Naruto's Sharingan to progress to two tomoe in each eye, although he hadn't yet gained the third tomoe Naruto could feel that he was getting closer with each passing day.

What currently disturbed Naruto was the recent information he had received from Konoha through his clones. It had been determined that the due to the Yondaime Mizukage's death and the subsequent dispersion of the Sanbi's chakra, it would likely be another 2 ½ years before the Akatsuki resumed their Biju hunting operation in an attempt to keep themselves hidden.

This interfered with Naruto's own plans as he could no longer collect the Biju in order unless he wanted to play a dangerous game with the Akatsuki, which Naruto wasn't willing to do. Therefore he decided to go for those Jinchuuriki that people either didn't care about or were loaners.

Hence why Naruto had decided to first apprehend the Yonbi and Gobi Jinchuuriki, both of whom he had learnt through his clone network weren't regularly tracked by the Tsuchikage. His next target would be the Rokubi container who didn't keep in touch with Kiri after he had defected during the bloodline purges. Naruto's fourth target would be the Nanabi Jinchuuriki Fuu who was treated as an outcast within her village but would still be fiercely protected by the shinobi there.

This would leave the Nibi, Sanbi and the Hachibi, two of whom would be very well protected whilst the third would be in full Biju form and thus very obvious. This means that it would become a contest as to who found and got to the Sanbi first.

* * *

Six months after leaving Konoha and arriving in Senomura saw Naruto ready to move on. Although he would keep this area as a base to return to after gaining each tailed beasts' chakra.

His first target would be the Gobi Jinchuuriki Han, whom he had heard (through his clones in Konoha who had been listening in on conversation between Minato and Jiraiya as they kept track of the lone Jinchuuriki) that he was no longer in Tsuchi no Kuni and had since moved to the vicinity of Yugakure no Sato.

Han was well renowned for his title 'Joki no Jinchuuriki' so Naruto thought it very likely that the man was in one of the famous villages known for their superb hot springs.

The first couple of days were very unnerving as Naruto again skirted the top of Sound in an attempt to avoid Orochimaru and any of his subordinates. He was not cocky enough to believe he could take on Orochimaru's full power, especially if he had backup.

Two days later Naruto was in the country where Han was wondering, however it took Naruto a further two weeks to track the man down to a small, private and expensive hot spring located in the middle of the country where a string of more public hot springs were located.

Naruto believed that subtlety would be of no use here as Han would sense him coming from a mile away. Instead he eliminated any guards surrounding the private area and was about to enter the building when he found Han already waiting for him at the entrance. The man was already dressed in his usual red armour with black ANBU trousers, a mask covering his face and a red hat to complete the getup.

"What do you want?" The man's voice was very deep and it sounded calm, as if nothing could surprise him.

Naruto's reply was short, "Your chakra."

Naruto could see the slightest rise of an eyebrow, "You mean the Gobi's chakra, why?"

"An experiment, I only need a tails worth."

"I refuse."

Naruto smirked at the answer, "I was hoping you'd say that, I have a lot of skills which I'd like to test in combat."

Naruto began the fight with a simple punch that was easily caught in a single hand.

"You are young and very, very stupid."

Han's retaliating punch was enhanced by his Futton which was a side effect of having the Gobi sealed into him and it launched Naruto into a mountain which surrounded the area.

The Naruto that was punched dissolved into water, a clear sign of the _Mizu Bunshin_. When the real Naruto reappeared he became serious, activating his Sharingan, spotting that Han was running at high speeds using his _Jōki Bakushin_ preparing another _Funsuiken_.

His Sharingan predicted the attack pattern of Han just in time to move out of the way as the entire hillside moved from the punch which impacted where he was previously.

Naruto unsealed the sand contained in a storage seal painted on his body and formed a spear which was thrown at the imposing man.

 _"Saikō Zettai Kōgeki: Shukaku no Hoko"_

Han deflected the spear instead of facing it head on, allowing it to penetrate several meters into the ground before its momentum was stopped.

"Sunaton, so you're serious then."

" _Sunadan no Jutsu_ "

A series of small sand bullets formed in the air and targeted Han who began to dodge the tiny projectiles which would punch a hole through anything it impacted against.

Han quickly grew tired of the small sand bullets and decided to counter the jutsu with one of his own.

" _Futton: Kōmu no Jutsu_ "

A technique which released an acidic mist which corroded anything it touched, including the sand bullets which couldn't withstand the high pH levels of the mist. In addition the fast diffusion of the mist forced Naruto to cry " _Sabakuha_!" to form a defensive sand shield which temporarily held the mist at bay so Naruto could form his next attack.

" _Hirogari Tei Ihen"_

This particular wind technique had no cutting power but was an instrument of brute force which was similar to _Fuuton: Atsugai_ but far stronger, completely blowing the mist back towards Han and then ripping up the earth underneath the Gobi Jinchuuriki, blowing him straight into the hot spring building as said building itself had parts torn up and blown away.

This gave Naruto the time he needed to stage his next technique as he used the sand he had released previously to begin crushing the earth underground to form more sand. Once he had enough sand Naruto paused for a moment to concentrate on what he was about to do.

" _Ryūsa Bakuryū"_

A tidal wave of sand emerged from the earth and began to engulf everything around it in a sea of sand, changing the very landscape and even washing away what remained of the building which housed the hot springs.

Han was buried underneath the meters of sand which layered on top of each other to imprison him. But Naruto knew it wouldn't hold the man for very long and was about to use a doton jutsu when he quickly shunshined away from his current position as Han burst through the sand, covered in the red chakra of his Biju.

Han closed in once more and began a fierce taijutsu match which Naruto was hard pressed to keep up with, even with his Sharingan. Han's blows were stronger and faster in this new form and Naruto was accumulating damage.

Unable to move fast enough to counter the Biju enhanced man, Naruto felt his internal organs boil slightly as Han scored a direct hit on Naruto's abdomen and launched him back into his own sand, burying him.

Naruto used his current environment to his advantage and solidified the sand so that it protected him from Han for a few moments as he used some Iryō ninjutsu to heal himself.

Naruto realised he was out of time when he felt a building pressure above him which was penetrating his sand shield. Han had used the _Futton: Isoi de Kiri Jutsu_ to launch a concentrated version of the _Futton: Kōmu no Jutsu_ which was aimed at a single point instead of covering an entire area. The high pressure would force the mist through most obstacles and would melt them faster, however it was a fairly easy attack to avoid as it moved in a single direction.

Naruto manipulated the sand to cocoon his body and shift it away from the rapidly approaching mist, he then had the layer of sand which covered the area form into a multitude of spears and shuriken which he launched against Han, who easily batted them aside or dodged them. This gave Naruto the opportunity to recover some more before he propelled himself straight towards Han and began to use his chakra chains against the Jinchuuriki.

At first Han batted away the two chains which approached him until two more swarmed him and bound the arm which was about to punch Naruto. Feeling his chakra sealed where the chains wrapped around him Han became aware of the danger they posed and substituted with a _Mizu Bunshin_ that had clearly been prepared for such an event.

After the bunshin was destroyed by his chains, Naruto avoided another steam enhanced strike before sending more chains to pursue the man, with Naruto following behind and striking Han, who was now on the defensive as he could not keep up against the combined abilities of the Uzumaki chakra chains, Naruto's enhanced body and his Sharingan all at once.

Naruto now firmly held the upper hand as he began to score shallow strikes through Han's tough armour. Each strike seemed to take a little more out of the man as he was worn down by Naruto's attacks. Yet he made sure that he was not wrapped by his chains, constantly shifting or replacing himself with clones so that they couldn't get a hold of any parts of his body.

Eventually Han let his guard down for a moment and Naruto seized the opportunity to strike with a chakra enhanced punch, propelling the scratched and bloody Han away from him. But this is exactly what Han wanted as he began to enter the second stage of his Biju transformation, however before he could Naruto smirked in accomplishment and held a single handseal as he cried:

" _Uzumaki Fuuinjutsu: Hokufu Sei Mahi_ "

All of Han's movement stopped and the red bubbling chakra which had begun to creep up on him vanished, leaving only Han's real body behind.

"I know you can't speak or move so I'll tell you about this technique as I extract the chakra I need."

Naruto confidently approached the motionless Han and drew a special sealing formula which would channel Han's Biju energy into a scroll which Naruto set onto the ground.

"The _Hokufu Sei Mahi_ is a technique which completely halts all body and chakra movement. You see for a Jinchuuriki such as yourself a normal demon suppressing seal won't work as you have enough control to simply burn through the sealing formula, therefore an alternative method has to be found. There are a few methods to go about this, the easiest and brutish method would be to knock you unconscious and then forcefully extract the chakra, however this takes a rather long time. Secondly you can use a sealing array like I have, it keeps you conscious and keeps your chakra active, making it far easier to extract. Finally you could have a bloodline like the Mokuton extract the chakra out for you, a method I will likely use in the future.

"Now you might wonder when I applied this technique, the truth is I used it after you blocked my first punch, hence why you were able to strike me afterwards and why I had prepared a bunshin beforehand to substitute with. It just takes a little while for the seal to slowly and completely infect your chakra network, a particularly tricky task with a Jinchuuriki such as yourself but it nevertheless worked."

Having finished his explanation Naruto devoted all his energies into taking the chakra he needed from Han. A minute later and he was done, so Naruto gave Han a final message, "Now before I go you should know that there is an organisation called the Akatsuki who are intent on completely extracting your Biju from you, which as I'm sure you know will kill you. Before you dismiss them you should know that the Akatsuki is made up of S-rank criminals and they have a tendency to travel in pairs. As to why I am telling you this information, well I'd like it if they were delayed for as long as possible, whatever they want with the Biju, it won't be pretty."

His message given, Naruto placed a series of demon suppressing seals on Han. Since the man could not access his chakra then he could no longer burn through the seals, so when Naruto activated all of them at once, the natural result was Han falling unconscious. Naruto estimated that it would take around one full day before the man woke up again.

Before Naruto left he placed one more seal on Han, it became invisible the moment it was on the target so Han would never notice the black lines which were under his left ear.

The seal in question was paired with a book and would record all the conversations that Han would have in the future. For Naruto had a hunch that Han would inform Roshi of this encounter in the near future in order to prepare the man; if so then Naruto could find out where Roshi currently was and where he would be heading next, allowing Naruto to easily find the man.

His task finished, Naruto picked up the large scroll containing the Gobi's chakra and attached it to his back before leaving the area and Yu no Kuni, again travelling through the top of Oto no Kuni before arriving back in Tetsu no Kuni and his home in Senomura.

As he arrived Naruto made his way into a hidden room which was under the hidden research lab which was in the hidden home. It stood to reason that such a place had so many traps that it would take days for anyone else to even begin to decipher them, if they ever found the place that is seeing as Naruto had used some pretty complex Jikukan Ninjutsu to put this particular room in a dimension which was slightly out of sync with the real world. This meant that unless one had the exact sealing formula to enter the dimension then they would be trapped in a limbo of sorts until they died.

The entire process had cost Naruto more chakra than he'd like to admit, however he believed that it was worth it because inside the room were several scrolls filled with everything Naruto had received from the True Uzumaki. In addition there was a wall at the back of the room which had nine spaces to hold something, two of which had been filled with massive scrolls. One of the scrolls was now empty, having once contained the chakra of the Ichibi Naruto had gained from Gaara, the other scroll still held the chakra of the Kyuubi which Naruto had remaining.

He approached the wall and placed the scroll on his back in the fifth slot before he once more left the room and placed the whole area out of sync with reality once more.

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, special thanks to BloodKingEclipse for pointing out a few issues I had forgotten about (namely Danzo's interest in Naruto, we'll be seeing more of him sometime in the future). Now I wonder who Naruto will go after next?

The map I am basing my view of the Elemental Nations on is not one I can claim credit for. All credit instead goes to Shadow Rebirth who designed and created the map. Said map can be found on Deviant Art through the following link:

xshadowrebirthx .deviantart art/ Elemental-Nations-Geographical-Map- 317422439

Here's a list of the techniques:

Chishio Bunshin – Blood Clone – A unique clone, one that half the blood currently contained within the body. It then requires a further 80% of chakra currently within the person's body. This forms a clone which is exactly the same as the original, barring a decreased chakra capacity. The clone lasts six months and can be dispelled through grievous and fatal wounds. Kinjutsu of the True Uzumaki. Not original, a slightly different spin on an old idea.

Sunadan no Jutsu – Sand Bullet Technique – From the sand multiple small bullets are formed. Despite their small size, the force with which they can impact against opponents will crush ribs or if propelled at high enough speeds, punch holes through a body. B-rank. Not an original technique, just provided a name to an existing technique.

Hirogari Tei Ihen – Spreading Air Disaster – The user hones a great amount of wind chakra within their body, focusing and refining the chakra. As they release it a great blast of wind tears through anything standing in its path, it has no cutting power, just sheer destructive ability. S-rank.

Uzumaki Fuuinjutsu: Hokufu Sei no Mahi – Uzumaki Sealing Technique: Creeping Paralysis – The user first touches their opponent, in doing so they inject a tiny amount of chakra, which is compressed sealing script, into their opponent's body. The script then travels along the chakra network of the opponent, unfolding as it does so into every chakra path and every part of the body, remaining inactive. After a few minutes the script has now fully infested the body of the opponent, the jutsu can then be activated, causing instant paralysis as the sealing script prevents any use of chakra and the body. S-rank.

Until next time, Ja ne!


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **Senomura- One month later…**

It was a full month before Han made any contact with Roshi, who turned out to be east of Tsuchi's capital.

After conversing with Han, both had decided not to inform Ōnoki of what had happened to Han. Neither owed their loyalty to Iwa or the Tsuchikage who had thrown them by the wayside as Iwa entered a period of demilitarisation.

Roshi told Han that he'd likely make his way to the southwest, where an intersection of three rivers met and a large town known as Tsuchimashiro thrived there. It gave him some form of protection as any fight would be witnessed by the whole town and Tsuchi's Daimyo would become very angry if the place was destroyed, so Roshi's attacker wouldn't be able to get out of the country easily or without repercussions.

Naruto cursed Roshi for his intelligent decision, it would make life for him far harder as not only was it likely that shinobi regularly passed through Tsuchimashiro but if the inevitable fight between Roshi and Naruto became too prolonged then more serious backup for Roshi would arrive.

Realising that facing such odds, even with his current power, was likely to result in serious injuries, imprisonment or even death, Naruto made the decision to leave the experienced Roshi for now and concentrate on the Jinchuuriki of the Rokubi, who he believed was called Utakata.

Information on him was scarce, the man had an even larger tendency to be a loner than Han, which was saying something.

For the next two weeks Naruto created Chishio Bunshin, one every three days, in order to send them across the Elemental Nations in an attempt to track Utakata down. Meanwhile Naruto once more focused on his training, knowing he had to get to the level of a young Hashirama or Madara if he wanted to confidently take on Roshi in the middle of Tsuchi no Kuni with little chance of being killed or imprisoned as he would be forced to escape from the Daimyo's and thus Ōnoki's wrath.

It would be nearly three months until Naruto gained information on the whereabouts of Utakata who turned out to be venturing within Tani no Kuni. This made Naruto grumble in frustration as he would either have to add weeks onto his journey time by taking a detour through Waterfall, Earth, Claw and Wind or he could cut through Hi no Kuni and take a direct line towards River.

Naruto felt that it was worth the risk to go through Hi no Kuni and arrive at his destination faster before Utakata moved once more. During his journey throughout the Land of Fire he kept all of his senses on high alert, wary for signs of either Minato or more importantly, the unknown man and his shinobi group who had far too much information on him, whilst he still knew nothing about them except that they were called 'Root'.

Naruto arrived without incident a week later, but would be forced to spend another month searching for Utakata because although Naruto knew what country Utakata was in due to sightings from the local population which matched the man's description, Naruto didn't know where exactly he was.

At times Naruto appeared to have just missed Utakata and at others he was days off. The Uzumaki could swear that Utakata knew someone was following him, which would be incredibly dangerous indeed. He had caught Han somewhat by surprise along with a healthy bit of planning, if this Jinchuuriki was prepared then Naruto would have a far harder fight ahead of him.

He eventually caught up at the border between River and Fire, where a young man with pale gold eyes, dressed in a light blue kimono with three bubbles stitched on the back was clearly waiting for Naruto beside a large river which made its way south before branching off to the sea.

A stream of bubbles floated past Naruto before he heard a calm voice speak, "You've been tracking me for quite a while now, why is that?"

"You haven't made things easy for me, constantly moving around."

"I like to travel. Now what do you want?" Utakata's voice sharpened as he asked his question for a second time.

"A tails worth of your chakra." Naruto gave a similar answer as he had Han, wondering what response he would get this time.

Utakata narrowed his eyes at Naruto before turning away from him and beginning to walk away, "No" was all Naruto received.

A smirk adorned his lips at the once again predictable response, "I don't take no for an answer."

Utakata halted in his tracks before sighing deeply, "One more to add to the list of dead."

Naruto saw his target turn, blowing bubbles in a steady stream towards him,

" _Suiton: Hōmatsu no Jutsu_ "

Naruto threw a kunai at one of the approaching bubbles, causing it to explode upon contact. Eyes widening at the realisation that these bubbles would surround him and then explode, Naruto started his own set of handseals.

" _Katon: Yurika no Jutsu_ "

Fireballs the size of the _Goukakyuu no Jutsu_ but with the speed of the _Housenka no Jutsu_ made their way towards Utakata, detonating all the bubbles on their way. As the fireballs hit the surprised Utakata he detonated into a large amount of bubbles that were swallowed up by fire.

As Naruto realised the Utakata he was facing the whole time was actually a clone, he felt more bubbles coming from behind him but was too late from preventing a few from exploding in his face, throwing him across the river as the real Utakata emerged from the trees.

His opponent pressed his advantage by blowing more bubbles, however these ones were far larger and thrice as fast as before, causing a series of detonations that Naruto fled from by using Hiraishin. He had prepared the battlefield earlier by throwing kunai to certain strategic places.

Soon tiring of the cat and mouse game Naruto began to use one of the stronger fire techniques he had in his arsenal,

" _Katon: Gōenka_ "

Naruto kneaded the fire chakra within in his stomach to create a multitude of fireballs which not only decimated all of the bubbles aiming to detonate near him, it also consumed the area where Utakata had been standing, decimating it in a fiery blaze.

Naruto used a simple wind jutsu to blow some of the smoke away, revealing Utakata completely covered in a red chakra cloak, six tails swishing behind him.

"Well that's not good."

As if to prove Naruto right, Utakata's tails extended towards Naruto, attempting to impale him. In return Naruto called upon seven Uzumaki chains to combat Utakata's six. At the same time Utakata spat a stream of acid at Naruto which quickly consumed the hastily erected earth wall the Uzumaki had formed to prevent the attack from eating away at his own body.

Naruto was once again engaged in a game of cat and mouse as Utakata appeared in front of Naruto and started to use a combination of strikes and tails to attack him with.

As the fight continued to progress Naruto at first found it difficult to keep up with the wild and unpredictable tails which scored multiple lashes across his body, the potent chakra instantly cauterizing the wound. Yet as the fight developed and Naruto strained his eyes more and more to keep up with the tails he was more easily able to predict Utakata's movements and eventually started to push the man back with his own taijutsu/chakra chain combinations, going so far as to have his extra chain free to attack Utakata directly.

As his chain started to elicit cries of pain from the Jinchuuriki due to superficial strikes which hit Utakata, Naruto now found that he could see exactly what Utakata was going to do next, enabling him to finish the fight with one final move.

Weaving through the four tails that had just tried to impale him, Naruto had three chains bind them to the ground as he struck Utakata in the face. Naruto then leapt into the air to avoid the final two tails and had two of his chains bind those tails to the ground as well, leaving Naruto to strike the main body of the Biju enhanced Utakata with a chakra enhanced punch, disorienting him for long enough so that Naruto could use his final two chains to drag the container himself to the floor.

Making sure that he was firmly restrained Naruto decided upon a different method of extraction this time, desiring to see if his control over Mokuton was enough for this.

" _Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu: Kakuan Nitten Suishu_ "

Ten pillars surrounded Utakata and began to suppress his chakra within the area contained within the ten pillars. However Naruto then had the pillars channel the Biju chakra into a scroll he had placed on the ground before initiating this technique. Red chakra was diverted into the scroll in front of Naruto, causing Utakata to return to his normal form, although his kimono had become tattered and burned.

A few minutes later and Naruto had gained all the chakra the scroll could handle and could instead purely focus on suppressing Utakata's chakra.

After finishing his technique Naruto rolled up the scroll and secured it to his back. He then left a letter for Utakata which detailed what he had told Han about the Akatsuki. It would make him wary (if he read it) and could thus make the Akatsuki's life more difficult.

Just before he left, Naruto glanced at his reflection in a kunai, his body quivered with excitement as he noticed that his Sharingan now had three tomoe inside them as a result of fighting Utakata. It was apparent that the difficulties he had faced in fighting the man's Biju state had helped to advance his eyes to the next level.

* * *

Half way through his journey back to Senomura, Naruto was accosted. He felt their presence quite a while ago and quickly deduced that these shinobi were of no threat, so he allowed them to approach, wanting to send a message to Konoha. Deflecting some kunai away from himself, Naruto turned to face the Hunter nin which were chasing after him. He sensed some ANBU were hidden in the trees a bit further back attempting to hide their chakra presence.

"Only two groups of you? I'm almost insulted that you would classify me as an S-rank nukenin but only send the eight of you after me."

The Hunter nins did not reply, instead throwing a very recognisable kunai in between them and Naruto, a tri-pronged kunai.

'Shit, he must have given them to each group who were tracking me!'

A flash of yellow later and Naruto now found a far more imposing sight in front of him, Minato was casually picking up his kunai, flanked by Kushina, Tsunade and Kakashi.

"Well done group 7, provide ranged support in this fight, leave everything else to us."

Naruto stared into blue eyes which held no emotion in them, nothing to indicate that Minato would feel even the merest flicker of remorse for what he was about to do.

A leaf floated between the two groups, drifting down until it touched the ground and Naruto activated his Sharingan and faced the oncoming kunai, deflecting the slash aimed for his throat.

"So you've taken the Sharingan as well, you can sink no lower."

Naruto parried another kunai strike from Minato and then ducked under a slash from Kakashi as a chakra chain emerged from his back to prevent Kushina's own chain from impaling him.

"I've got much further to go before I'm finished. You'll all be insects to crush by the time I've achieved all my objectives."

Naruto used his own Hiraishin to avoid the tag team taijutsu combination that Kakashi and Minato were about to perform only to be struck by Tsunade who had been anticipating his move.

"Your objectives end here and now!"

Above Naruto were Kakashi and Minato, both performing a different set of handseals.

" _Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu_ "

" _Raiton: Rairyuudan no Jutsu_ "

The two elemental dragons combined to form a monstrosity that towered over twenty feet high and flew towards Naruto who had started his own seals the moment his Sharingan identified what they were doing.

" _Mokuton: Mokujōheki_ "

A corridor of wood surrounded Naruto and the dragon combination cracked but couldn't penetrate the wood defence. That job was left to Tsunade who pummelled straight through the technique with her chakra enhanced punch, allowing Kushina who held a katana enhanced with wind chakra to strike.

Unfortunately the Naruto she struck crumbled into mud once it was decapitated, outside the corridor of wood found Naruto performing another series of handseals.

" _Hyoton: Kokuryū Bōfūsetsu_ "

From a seal placed on Naruto a torrent of ice escaped, quickly forming a black dragon which flew towards Minato and Kakashi, the former of whom used Hiraishin with the other to another of his kunai to avoid the dragon.

Instead the dragon aimed for the Hunter nin, striking them high into the air, allowing Naruto to finish them off using Hiraishin.

"Dammit!"

Naruto smirked as Minato shouted in distress, before his eyes widened as he felt a presence behind him. Managing to dodge to avoid being bisected, Naruto instead found a deep wound stretching across his chest, courtesy of Kushina and her sword. Blood was pouring from it as he tried to enhance the healing process using his chakra, but was forced to put it on hold as Kakashi attempted to finish him with a Raikiri.

He used a few chakra chains to drive off Minato as he turned to stare Kushina directly in her eyes,

" _Genjutsu: Sharingan_ "

Kushina's momentum immediately faltered, slipping into unconsciousness. However before Naruto could do anything else to her two of the surrounding ANBU used a katon/doton collaboration which Naruto was forced to avoid as a third ANBU retrieved Kushina's unconscious body.

" _Kamui_ "

As Naruto heard Kakashi call out the technique he saw a space-time distortion open up next to him.

'Jikukan Ninjutsu? But when did Kakashi acquire the prowess for…'

Before Naruto could think any further he was struck by Tsunade who had come from the space-time distortion and used the _Chakura no Mesu_ to sever the tendons inside his right arm and leg, causing Naruto's body to collapse on that side as he could no longer support his body weight.

"Argh!"

"Everybody retreat! _Fuuton: Rasenshuriken_ "

As all the shinobi fled the area Naruto could only widen his eyes as he realised that Minato had timed this perfectly so that Naruto wouldn't have time to recover from his injury and escape. Furthermore the short distance between Minato and he meant that no technique of Naruto's would be able to protect him from Minato's attack. The man had even accounted for the Hiraishin, as Naruto could no longer feel the connection he had with each individual kunai so that he could flash to them. It was then that he noticed that there was a second Minato who was holding his kunai, having removed the formula which allowed him to teleport to them. This only left…

" _Jikukan Ninjutsu: Yugami_ "

A quick set of handseals caused a symbol to appear in the air for a moment before it vanished and reality bent around the _Rasenshuriken_ and then suddenly it had changed directions to move upwards into the sky, exploding well out of range of Naruto, who had healed his leg but had some beads of sweat running down his face from the chakra cost of the technique.

"How on earth…Just what sought of space-time technique was that?"

Naruto gave Minato a deadpan look, "I'm not in the habit of explaining my techniques to people who could potentially counter them, figure it out for yourself. Give Natsumi-chan my love."

Naruto spat out the last sentence as concentrated his chakra on a kunai far away from here, requiring the extra time to connect with the formula upon it. He flashed away from the area, leaving Minato to give a frustrated shout at Naruto's escape.

"We lost two good people to that damn brat! We'll mourn for them when we get back group 7. Tsunade how's Kushina-chan?"

The Slug Sannin hovered over Kushina, green chakra shining from her hands before the light died down, "She's fine, a bit of rest and she'll wake up in about an hour."

Minato nodded, "Good and how are you faring Kakashi-kun, I know how much Kamui takes out of you."

The white haired Jounin was on his knees panting as Tsunade approached him, using her own chakra to bolster his own until he could replenish his own reserves naturally, "Thank you Tsunade-sama. I'll be fine with a bit of rest Minato-sensei."

Again Minato nodded before he gathered any of his kunai from the battlefield, also collecting Naruto's own version of them from his clone so he could study it.

"Alright then it'd be best if you all hold on so that I can transport us all."

It took Minato considerably more chakra the more people he was transporting with his kunai, especially if it was a long distance as it was now. In order to transport everyone all at once Minato had the ANBU and Hunter nin pour some of their chakra into the sealing that Minato created for large group transportation.

A yellow flash later and they had arrived at the gates of Konoha. Once there Minato ordered Kakashi and Kushina to rest and recover at the hospital with Shizune overseeing them as he also told Tsunade to get some rest. After a heated argument with Kushina who only backed down with Tsunade's help, Minato made a beeline for the Hokage's Tower.

Once inside he debriefed group 7, telling them that they would hold a memorial for their dead members soon and would add their names to the memorial stone at the same time.

After this he called for an emergency meeting with the shinobi council which was set for an hour's time.

After the requisite amount of time had passed Minato made his way to the council chambers where he found everyone already waiting for him.

"May I ask why you called us Hokage-sama?" The old voice of Danzo Shimura filtered through the room, calm and composed as always.

Minato had to grit his teeth at the man, knowing his ROOT was still active but unable to gather any evidence or pin anything on the man.

"I have summoned you all to give an update on Naruto."

The shinobi council were disciplined enough not to begin muttering like old housewives, "Group 7 used one of my kunai nearly an hour ago to alert me of their discovery. Kakashi, Kushina, Tsunade and I were all transported to engage him."

As Minato described his encounter in great detail, many faces on the council grew worried and dismayed as they realised how powerful Naruto had become if he was capable of fighting and escaping from four S-ranked shinobi.

In contrast to all the other faces, Fugaku Uchiha looked apoplectic with rage after Minato had described Naruto's three tomoe Sharingan. Hiashi Hyuuga also became tense at the mention of the stolen dojutsu.

As soon as Minato had finished his report Fugaku's voice burst out, "This is an outrage! The Uchiha and Senju bloodlines both stolen! Not to mention he fact that the boy also has the Uzumaki and Yuki bloodlines! He must be eliminated! He-"

"That's enough Fukgaku-san, I know that you are upset that the Sharingan has been stolen and is being used by someone not of Uchiha blood but as much as we may wish to deny it, Naruto is a formidable opponent especially when we consider what Hokage-sama has just told us."

The calm and shrewd personality of Inoichi Yamanaka was exactly what was required to diffuse the tense situation and make Fugaku return to a calmer demeanour. As Fugaku sat back down Inoichi turned towards Minato and gave a slight bow of his head.

"Thank you Inoichi, I propose that we create a team who is ready at all times to be transported via my Hiraishin to wherever Naruto shows up. This team should consist of no less than four S-rank shinobi, which I believe should be possible if we include me, Kushina, Tsunade and possibly Shisui or Itachi, one of whom is usually in the village to train Sasuke as the other goes on a mission. Is that right Fugaku-san?"

"Hai, that is right, I'm making sure that my youngest gets the best training he can."

As the council began to debate over the pros and cons of setting up such a team and restricting their activities to the village, Minato noticed that Shikaku had made no comment and looked to be thinking rather hard.

"A penny for your thoughts Shikaku?"

The Nara head looked up and sighed, muttering a barely audible "Troublesome" before he spoke up, "I would propose that we leave the Naruto situation now, with Akatsuki still at large and being a far more prominent threat we can't afford to have so many of our best holed up in the village. In addition we must consider Iwa and Kumo, both of whom might consider the reduction in mission intake resulting from the formation of this group as a sign of weakness. I suggest that we wait until we have dealt with the Akatsuki and potentially Orochimaru as well before we tackle Naruto, at which point we can call upon Suna to help us, adding another S-rank shinobi or two to our list to draw upon. By waiting we will also give Natsumi and Sasuke time to grow further, potentially far enough to add another two S-rank shinobi to our list to draw from. A task force consisting of these shinobi could then tackle Naruto, who would be overwhelmed by facing so many powerful shinobi at once."

With a final "Troublesome" Shikaku's head slumped onto the desk, as if speaking for so long had completely drained him of all his energy.

The rest of the room had descended into silence, all thinking about the proposal until the unusual occurrence of Shibi Aburame's voice was heard, "I second this proposal. Why you ask, because dealing with one problem at a time is more efficient and dealing with the more prominent problems is logical."

The steadfast logic of the Aburame began to sway much of the council and in the end Shikaku's proposal was unanimously accepted. Although both Fugaku and Hiashi raised objections, wanted assurances granted and dragged their feet kicking (and nearly screaming), they too accepted Shikaku's option.

A mumble was sounded through the room as Minato was about to discuss whether they should keep their current surveillance for Naruto in place or whether those shinobi could be used for other things if they weren't going to pursue Naruto.

"What was that Shikaku?" Choza asked of his old friend and placed his ear next to the inaudible Nara who was too lazy to even lift his head up from the table.

A moment later and Choza's eyes brightened in realisation as he relayed Shikaku's words, "Shikaku wants to know what was in Naruto's scroll."

The room delved into speculation and supposition, Minato groaned internally when it dawned on him just how long he would be stuck here and nearly groaned out 'troublesome' himself.

Half a day later Minato dragged himself back to the Hokage's Office, deciding to finish off some important paperwork and leaving the rest until tomorrow. When he arrived a kage bunshin was diligently working on the stacks of paper which lined the room.

After it dispelled Minato got a slight surprise when he discovered that Kōsuke had arrived today with an update on Natsumi's training.

Minato was ready to burst with pride when he found out that Jiraiya believed she was ready for Senjutsu training at Mount Myoboku. It meant that she would become the youngest practitioner of Senjutsu ever and her body was strong enough to handle the chakra, which put her at an Elite Jounin rank in Minato's books.

However it brought up the issues of Minato's own training, he knew that he had more potential but found so little time to train and experiment, so Minato decided to ask some people around the village if they wanted to train with him. He also made a promise to himself to visit the toads in the near future to see if he could improve his own ability to access Sage Mode.

Minato sighed once more as he thought of all the work ahead of him.

* * *

 **Senomura- Two days later…**

Naruto arrived back at his home both annoyed and happy at the same time. He was annoyed that Konoha had been able to track him and cursed himself for being so arrogant as to let the Hunter nin and ANBU approach him, he should have realised that Minato had a plan up his sleeve. He was also dismayed that Natsumi was soon going to learn the legendary Senjutsu, meaning that he needed to have a counter to it.

However what pleased Naruto was that not only had he been able to fight against and escape from four S-rank ninja with ANBU backup, he had also managed to kill two of their backup and knocked out one of the S-ranks.

After Naruto had placed the scroll containing the Rokubi's chakra in the hidden room he decided to sit down and think upon his next actions. He knew where the Nibi, Yonbi, Nanabi and Hachibi would be for the foreseeable future. He also knew that at this moment, despite his High Kage level strength, it would be suicide for him to engage any of them by himself because each would have a village surrounding them. In three cases it was a shinobi village and in the last one it was a prominent trading town located in the middle of a country. So Naruto decided to focus upon his training and his bloodlines.

He would first of all take Shisui's blood into his own, for now that he had accessed the final stage of the Sharingan through his fight with Utakata, Naruto believed that Shisui's blood would force his own eyes to transform into the Mangekyō Sharingan, an ability his clan said would grant the wielder different powers for each person who obtained it. Although Naruto would most likely gain the same techniques as Shisui, he still knew that they would be formidable and very useful in the future.

After this he could devote his time to training with these new eyes alongside his other techniques. Approximately a year later he would infiltrate Konoha himself and visit the Uchiha's Naka Shrine and attempt to decipher the secrets there. The True Uzumaki had learnt that by advancing through the various stages of the Sharingan one could read more of the tablet, seeing that none of them had ever seen the tablet, let alone been able to use a Sharingan to decipher it, this would be unchartered territory for Naruto.

At the same time Naruto had thoughts about kidnapping Sasuke to lure Itachi out of the village so he could try and take some of the elder Uchiha's blood, perhaps he could gain additional abilities by taking the blood of different Uchiha with Mangekyō Sharingan.

It would be at this point in time where Naruto could begin his hunt for the chakra of the other Biju, he would be able to easily locate them and if his skills had improved enough, he would also easily beat them.

Naruto's laughter sounded throughout the halls of his home as the plan came together inside his mind.

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, for now Naruto is at a bit of a standstill as the rest of the Jinchuuriki are all in well protected areas. I hope you enjoyed the battle he had with Minato and co, Naruto's arrogance cost him slightly.

Here's a list of the techniques:

Katon: Yurika no Jutsu – Fire Release: Fire Lily Technique – The user expands their lungs to a massive size in order to exhale gigantic fireballs of a size between the Goukakyuu no Jutsu and a small house. Each fireball has comparable speed to the Housenka no jutsu. It is a highly draining technique, usually requiring a high affinity to fire and large amounts of chakra. A-rank.

Raiton: Rairyuudan no Jutsu – Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Technique – Very similar to the Water Dragon Technique, this jutsu requires the user to emit a stream of lightning from their mouth in the form of a dragon. Said dragon will then strike out as directed, electrifying and burning anything it comes into contact with. A-rank.

Jikukan Ninjutsu: Yugami – Space-Time Ninja Technique: Distortion – A powerful technique developed by Naruto, the seal responds to a series of handseals developed by Naruto, after performing them the seal will appear. It has the ability to warp reality for a single instant, allowing techniques to suddenly appear elsewhere or turn in a different direction. S-rank.

Until next time, Ja ne!


End file.
